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Like many of the abbreviations The Internet Dictionary covers, there is no single universal meaning to the term “FT”.
But here are the three most common uses of the term, so you can be confident that you are using FT in the appropriate way.
Meaning #1: FaceTime
In the context of social media, uppercase “FT” or lowercase “ft” refers to FaceTime – the Apple application that allows seamless free video calls between Apple devices.
Unlike all the competitor video conferencing applications, such as Zoom, Skype, Snapchat or WhatsApp Video Call, FaceTime is the only referred to as an abbreviation. This could be to do with FaceTime being around for some time as an early entrant into the videoconferencing space, or it could be to do with the higher quality of the FaceTime interface – known for its minimalism and sleek design.
It could also be to do with other features, e.g. FaceTime allows more users to join a video call. On FaceTime, you can have up to 32 users on one single group video call. Compare this to Snapchat, which limits your video call to 15 friends.
So when people ask “FT?” or suggest “let’s FT”, these can be taken to mean a request to video call via FaceTime.
Meaning #2: Featuring
This is a simpler and older use of the term, typically seen in the music industry to show which artists are featured on another artist’s song.
In music, the featuring artist is considered to be the secondary, rather than the primary, artist.
For instance, Drake ft. Lil Wayne means Lil Wayne was the featuring artist on Drake’s track. This means the track will appear in Drake’s album, rather than Lil Wayne’s.
Meaning #3: Financial Times
Finally, FT can refer to the British business and financial news behemoth, The Financial Times. This abbreviation is typically seen in more corporate and finance circles, where the FT is one of the most reputed sources of information and normalised as the key bearer of daily news and analysis.
For example, when people ask “did you see the FT this morning?”, this refers to reading the morning edition of The Financial Times.
As always, it’s important to check the context in which the term FT is used. More often than not, that will give a good indication of which of the above meanings are correct.
[Read: The Internet Dictionary: What Does IMY Mean?]
