animals don't have human language; their ability to communicate with each other is greatly limited. by comparison, talking is easier & more precise communication — which, ignoring the sci-fi aspects from pop culture, is also a perfectly valid definition of telepathy.

“how does this human who's never been in my home before know exactly where the treats are?” cats will never know. sufficiently advanced communication is indistinguishable from magic.

don't even get me started on phones and Internet-based communication, AKA long-distance telepathy. I'm hundreds of times farther away from my cat than he's ever begrudgingly traveled in his life and I know exactly whose lap he's laying on right now.

holding up FaceTime to your cat & expecting them to understand what they're seeing is like if aliens tried to impress you by showing you your entire life as a 4-dimensional projection into the space around you. try to visualize what I just described. that's what your cat sees on the phone