You can accept a Walkie Talkie invitation when you receive it by following these steps:
1. Wait for the invitation notification to arrive on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap “Always Allow” at the bottom of the screen when the notification pops up.
3. Enjoy chatting with friends!
It’s great when technology works the way you want it to. However, that doesn’t always happen. The above is the ideal situation, but it can be easy to miss the notification. Don’t worry if you don’t see the invite right away. I will provide other ways to accept the invite below.
How To Accept an Invite if You Miss the Notification
If you had “Do Not Disturb” active when the notification came in, you wouldn’t have seen it. Or perhaps you weren’t wearing your Apple Watch at the time. There are plenty of reasons for missing the Walkie Talkie invite.
Since the above instructions only cover what to do if you see the notification you may be wondering how to accept the invite. You have two options in this case.
Your first is to open the notification center and go from there. The second option is to open the Walkie Talkie app.
How To Accept an Invite From the Notification Center
If you missed the invitation the first time it will go to the notification center. These notifications will stay until you clear them. Luckily this is another simple method.
- Tap and hold the top of your Apple Watch until the notification center appears. This can be done no matter what you’re doing on the Watch.
- After the center appears keep your finger on the Watch face and swipe down.
- Now that you’re in the notification center, scroll until you find the invite notification. You can scroll with your finger or the dial.
- Tap the invite to select it.
- Tap “Always Allow” at the bottom of the invite to accept it.
Your notifications will not show up on your Watch in some circumstances. If your Watch is disconnected from your phone, any notifications will go to the phone. If “Do Not Disturb” is on, the notifications won’t show until you turn it off.
How To Accept an Invite From the Walkie Talkie App
If you didn’t catch the invite the first time and can’t find it in the notification center there is one more way. You can also find invites in the Walkie Talkie app on the Watch.
- Start on the home screen of your Apple Watch.
- Find the yellow Walkie Talkie app and tap on it.
- In the app, scroll down until you see the name of the person who invited you.
- Tap on their name to accept the invitation.
If you have tried all of the above methods and none work then something is wrong. There are quite a few things that can cause the Walkie Talkie invites to fail.
Common Walkie Talkie Issues
The Apple Watch Walkie Talkie app can be rather finicky. Many users have reported issues with invitations. The first step if you are having problems is to try and identify them.
To that end, here are the most common issues:
- Regional unavailability
- Walkie Talkie service is down
- Out of date OS
- Using the same Apple ID
- FaceTime isn’t downloaded
- Incorrect FaceTime settings
The first problem is that FaceTime isn’t available in every country. Since the Walkie Talkie app relies on FaceTime audio it won’t work either. This should be the first thing to check if you encounter problems.
It is also possible that the issue isn’t on your end. Sometimes Apple features will go down either for maintenance or an internal failure. If this is the case there is nothing to do but wait.
That said, the issue can be on your side for a couple of reasons. The first has to do with the Operating System. Both your Watch and your contact’s Watch need to be up to date with the latest WatchOS.
Another user error has to do with Apple ID. You can’t use the Walkie Talkie feature to communicate with someone on the same ID. Both parties need a different Apple ID.
Since the Walkie Talkie relies on FaceTime you need to have the app downloaded on your phone. If you do not, you won’t have access to the Walkie Talkie app. Additionally, the settings on FaceTime must be correct.
This includes the phone number and Apple ID associated with FaceTime. Double-check that everything works on that end.
Common Walkie Talkie Fixes
While every issue is different, there are a few fixes that tend to work. First is the old standby. Turn both devices off then back on to reset. You can also toggle your availability on the watch a couple of times.
One reported fix is to cancel the invite and resend it several times. Some users have reported doing this many times before it worked.
