iOS 17 brought a number of new iPhone features and optimizations to the table, and one of these tweaks adds a few cool layers of entertainment to your FaceTime experience. Its called FaceTime gestures, and once its set up correctly, youll be able to send 3D animations to your friends and family during FaceTime video calls. Youll even be able to trigger the animations with physical gestures!

Contents How to make a FaceTime gesture in iOS 17What FaceTime gestures can you make in iOS 17? Getting your phone ready for action doesnt take much time or effort, but we put this guide together to walk you through the process nonetheless.

　　How to make a FaceTime gesture in iOS 17

For the most part, Apples gesture-based video reactions just work and not only as FaceTime gestures; you can trigger them in almost any video conferencing app that supports the standard iPhone camera APIs, including Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom. Its not even necessary for the other party (or parties) to be running iOS 17 or even using an iPhone or other Apple device, as all the effects are generated on your own iPhone and sent over as part of the video stream.

Related This means youll need an iPhone 12 or newer model to use FaceTime gestures and video reactions. Thats not merely a function of the more powerful A14 chip used in that model but also the TrueDepth camera that gained some significant improvements over the iPhone 11 and those that came before. Its no coincidence that the iPhone 12 is also the oldest model that supports mask-aware Face ID.

This is because the video reaction effects triggered by FaceTime gestures arent just overlaid in front of your face. Instead, theyre immersive three-dimensional effects that use the same kind of depth measurements as Portrait Mode photosto put you in the middle of the action. Balloons will float up around your head, fireworks will explode behind you, and confetti will drop surrounding you.

If you have an iPhone 12 or later (excluding the iPhone SE), and youve upgraded to iOS 17, theres one more thing you need to check to ensure that FaceTime gestures are enabled.

While on a video call in FaceTime or another compatible video conferencing app, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center. You should see two extra buttons at the top, above the normal controls for Airplane mode and Now Playing. Select Video Effects Under your camera preview, ensure that the Reactions button is enabled. Swipe up to dismiss Control Center.

Note that these steps are only needed to enable the recognition of hand gestures. You can turn Reactions off in step 3 instead if you find theyre getting in the way; youll still be able to send video reactions in FaceTime manually even when this is off, although you wont be able to trigger them in other video conferencing apps like Teams and Zoom.

　　What FaceTime gestures can you make in iOS 17?

If youre using FaceTime, you can manually trigger video reactions by long-pressing your video preview tile in the call. A list of buttons will pop up showing all eight possible reactions. Select any one of these to activate it.

However, the real fun part of video reactions comes from using FaceTime gestures, which allow you to add animated effects more naturally without touching your iPhone. Theyre also the only way to trigger these video reaction effects when using third-party video conferencing apps.

Here are the eight possible effects and the gestures you can use to trigger them. Note that youll need to hold your hands at least a few inches away from your face and pause for a moment or two to activate the reaction effect. This ensures its only triggered by a relatively deliberate attempt. However, you dont have to jerk your hands into position or make any other rapid movements, as its not the motion your iPhone is looking for, merely the gesture.

　　Thumbs-up

The first gesture is very intuitive. Just stick up your thumb with your hand a few inches away from your face and leave it there for a second or two, and youll see a thumbs-up bubble animate beside your head.

　　Thumbs-down

Like the thumbs-up, the thumbs-down is easier to figure out and works the same way.

　　Hearts

This one is easy to figure out once you know its there. Take two hands and make a heart gesture with the thumbs at the bottom point, and floating red hearts will emanate from the center of your hands.

　　Fireworks

A single thumbs up is a like, but if youre excited enough to put two thumbs up at the same time, youll get a burst of fireworks going off behind your head.

　　Rain

While its not the first thing that comes to mind if you really disapprove of an idea, two thumbs down will cast down some rain on your parade.

　　Balloons

The next few gestures get a bit more obscure as theres no apparent relationship between the gesture and the effect. The first of these is a two-fingered peace sign that triggers colored balloons floating up around you. Note that your hand needs to be facing palm-forward to start this one, with the back of your hand toward your face. Your thumb must also be folded in.

　　Confetti

Think of this one as balloons times two, as its essentially the same two-fingered gesture, but now done with both hands.

　　Laser Burst

The last and perhaps most challenging to figure out of Apples FaceTime gestures is the Laser Burst, which is triggered by holding up two hands palm-forward with the index finger and little finger up in a sign of the horns rock-n-roll salute. As with the two-finger gestures, your thumbs must also be tucked in for your iPhone to recognize this one.

FaceTime gestures can also be recognized and used on supported iPad models running iPadOS 17 and Apple silicon Macs running macOS Sonoma. Any video reactions you send will be visible to everybody in the call, regardless of the platform theyre using. However, theyll only be able to respond with a FaceTime gesture if theyre using a supported iPhone, iPad, or Mac.