OS X Yosemite: Handing Calls Off to Your iPhone

You might have heard about Yosemite’s neat new ability to make or answer iPhone calls on your Mac, and if you haven’t played around with this feature yet, well…I envy you. I actually do. It’s pretty nifty, and I may have squealed like a tiny little girl the first time I tried it out. I ain’t saying whether that’s true or not, but it probably is.

So what you can do is either answer calls that come into your iPhone with your Mac instead, or you can initiate calls on your Mac by using a phone number in Contacts, Calendar, or Safari, for example. You’ll see a notification in the upper-right corner of your screen when a call comes in or when one is taking place.

Your computer will use your iPhone as a conduit for the call, but from the point of view of your recipient, everything will look ordinary. (And if this feature is not working for you, be sure that FaceTime> Preferences> iPhone Cellular Calls is turned on within the FaceTime program on your Mac; for your iPhone, check Settings> FaceTime> iPhone Cellular Calls.)

I’m not here to tell you about the ins and outs of using this great new feature, though. (Cue sad trombone.) If you want to do troubleshooting or find out how to get everything running smoothly, there’s a comprehensive Apple support article on that. What I want to talk about is something simple but very cool—continuing a call that you started with your Mac on your iPhone so that you can rush out the door if you need to. (Cue…erm…happy trombone?)

So you’re chatting on your Mac, feeling all technologically smart and cutting edge and stuff. But you’ve gotta leave. Don’t end the call—unlock your iPhone, and you should see the familiar blinking banner at the top, indicating that you’re already on a call.

Touch the banner, and the call will end on your Mac and continue on your iPhone, quick as a wink. That’s all there is to it! 

Boy, that was a lot of buildup for a simple little tip, wasn’t it? If only the drugstore offered pills to cure diarrhea of the keyboard. As you guys probably know, I would need to be ALL OVER THAT.