Auto-answer FaceTime Calls

Enabling Auto-answer on FaceTime

Here are the steps required to enable automatic answering of calls on FaceTime:

1. Start by opening FaceTime if it isn’t already open, and log in. Then look for the contact details of the individual(s) you’d like to enable auto- answering for. This will be listed in your Contacts or Favorites list and will probably be an email address. Write the details down, and then quit FaceTime.

2. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following line:

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvites -bool TRUE

3. Then type the following line, and at the end type the FaceTime ID of the individual or device you want to auto-answer when they call. For example, if the contact FaceTime ID is keir@example.com, you’d type the following: 

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom -array-add keir@keirthomas.com

If the FaceTime ID is a cell phone number, you need to type it after the command without any spaces. For example, if the FaceTime ID was the cell phone number +15551231234, you’d type the following:

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom -array-add +15551231234

Restart FaceTime, and you should find calls from the FaceTime IDs you added are automatically answered!

You can repeat step 3 and add more FaceTime IDs to the list.

Removing Auto-answer Entries

To remove a FaceTime ID from the auto-answer list, you can use the following command, but unfortunately this removes all of the entries you might have added using the previous commands.

Quit FaceTime, open a Terminal window, and type the following two lines:

defaults delete com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvites 

defaults delete com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom

If you have Xcode installed and are competent using its Plist editor, you can manually remove individual auto-answer entries from the FaceTime prefer- ences file, which is found in the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FaceTime.plist file.