Apple apologizes for FaceTime bug, says feature to be back next week

Apple apologized Friday for a glitch that allowed group FaceTime users to see and hear the people they were calling even before a recipient answered. The company said it has fixed the issue on its servers and will issue a software update next week to re-enable group calling.

Why it matters: The bug was a black eye for the company, which prides itself on offering better privacy options than its rivals.

Apple had originally planned to issue the software update this week.

What they're saying: Here's Apple's full statement:

"We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple’s servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.

We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix. We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible. We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us.”