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Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

395 points by vpt 3y ago

user_7832 3y ago
It's really absurd how such a problem still exists. Couldn't a separate method be used for emergency calling? For example drop to 3g, don't use the dialer app but a separate "emergency" app.
- usr1106 3y ago
  I thought 3G networks have been shut down in the US? (Not living there but I remotely maintain some devices with cellular modems over there, so the topic has somewhat of professional interest.)
  - spacebouy 3y ago
    They have not. 2G networks have been shut down, however.
    - joecool1029 3y ago
      Incorrect, T-Mobile's 2G network is active until this coming April. Both their 3G networks (theirs and the Sprint legacy one) are shut down as they used more spectrum. Keeping GSM going the spectrum use is minimal.
- phh 3y ago
  Having dedicated code path for 911 is literally the problem. It makes it legally almost impossible to test in many countries (since in many countries you're not allowed to dial 911 if you don't have an emergency)
  - colanderman 3y ago
    Test in a Faraday cage with an isolated base station.
  - phowat 3y ago
    The article explains how to schedule a test call to 911.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    Just call nearest Rohde & Schwarz office and get a signaling tester... If you're doing phone firmware, there should be couple extra briefcases of cash for that. No need to call actual 911 just to test a dev branch build.
  - toast0 3y ago
    Which countries? Where I live, in the US, if you want to make a callback to a police detective, you have to call 911 and ask to be transfered. It's clearly not an emergency, and the detective will tell you to do it. This police department doesn't have a phone system that allows the public to call a non-emergency number and have their calls routed. But most places I've lived in the US had a non-emergency police number, and non-emergency 911 calls were very discouraged. If you have a good reason to make them for network or device testing, you'd just need to schedule a time to make a test call, stay on the line and tell the operator, etc. Device development would be well served by using a tower simulator in a Faraday cage, as a sibling suggested. But a responsible developer would do a few tests on live networks during release acceptance testing.
- chrismorgan 3y ago
  If talking about the US (though it’s not the only place that uses the number 911, and I would imagine that other countries’ numbers would be affected): all the major 3G networks have been shut down, so your current options for major networks are T-Mobile’s 2G network (which I successfully dialed 911 with a couple of months ago while in the US, but it’s only spottily available, and it’s being shut down next year), or 4G networks. More generally, though, using different code paths for emergency dialing is the root of the problem in the first place—you want to minimise special handling of things like this, because less-tested paths are much more likely to be buggy. Consider also: error handling code is pretty much the buggiest out there, because it’s seldom tested.
  - usr1106 3y ago
    At least 2 decades ago when I worked with phones the phone as a list of emergency numbers which could be updated to country-spefic values. Often 000, 112, and 911 were always present. Once the software notices one of these numbers dialled call handling will go a completely different code path than normal calls. I have no idea how things work in Android, where you obviously must have VoIP hooks?
    - joecool1029 3y ago
      >I have no idea how things work in Android, where you obviously must have VoIP hooks? Yes, there's emergency IMS (basically volte/vonr version of SIP) profiles the phone is supposed to register to and all the carriers towers advertise emergency numbers in their signaling.
  - alerighi 3y ago
    The problem with 4G (and 5G) is that it supports only internet traffic. Phone traffic is passed trough VoLTE that is VOIP on the network. Is something that is fairly new, few years ago only a couple of operators in my country even supported that, and thus phones had to drop to 3G to handle calls. Also VOIP is not that reliable and presents problems especially with different networks. The problem is when the internet connection is not so stable, and thus VoLTE doesn't work that well. The safer option would be to drop to 3G or even 2G if available to complete emergency calls.
- d3w4s9 3y ago
  Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but when one is in such a situation and they happen to have an app like Skype, people can use it for emergency calls (support in the US)
- covercash 3y ago
  It would be great if when 911 is dialed the phone dropped into a “black box” state where all unnecessary functionality is suspended to maximize battery and signal. It could alert emergency contacts w/ location pings, start recording voice and video, and go into a heightened security mode to avoid tampering.
  - readams 3y ago
    No you definitely don't want the phone doing confusing and weird things during an emergency. You want it to behave in the way the user is accustomed.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
I'm just wondering when Google will sunset the 911 dialing feature. /s
- 1023bytes 3y ago
  Analytics indicate that only a small percentage of people still use it and the engagement was low
  - sgt 3y ago
    Plus, the users occasionally have a tendency not to remain as users of Google services for very long after.
  - kotaKat 3y ago
    We'll bring it back as an RCS-reliant chat app and then waste half our time mocking Apple for it.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  New meaning for Killed by Google.
usr1106 3y ago
[flagged]
- wunderland 3y ago
  Who is downvoting this? It’s objectively true
- fluidcruft 3y ago
  Selling info to ambulance chasers and private first responders is probably a pretty good model. To fix everything all we really need to do is let Google sell the gravy.
nneonneo 3y ago
This article is about an incident from just last month, but the fact that there are 20+ failure reports over just Feb 2022-Jan 2023 (https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compiled_all_the_pixel_911emergency_call/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compi...), across multiple Pixel models, is insane. There’s something seriously wrong here.
- shawnz 3y ago
  Is there any data on how often this occurs with other brands, or what the failure rate was (i.e. how many attempts to call 911 succeeded in that time?) Otherwise 20+ reports certainly sounds bad but I don't really have a perspective on how bad it is. It could very well be that 20 failures across a year is within the expected failure rate due to unavoidable transient network issues.
  - Kwpolska 3y ago
    The author of the linked Reddit post was unable to find anything for other Android brands, and only three cases across ten years for iPhones.
    - nneonneo 3y ago
      And, it’s worth pointing out that the sales volumes of iPhones and just Samsungs (not counting any other brand) are many times that of Pixel, so if there was an issue even nearly as frequent with those phones it would definitely have been noticed by now.
      - simfree 3y ago
        Samsung has probably automated this testing given the number of SKUs they support, and they definitely have a lot more developers who are familiar with the cellular modems they use (Exynos and Snapdragon) to fix up edge cases unlike Google. The Pixel 6 (Pro and non-Pro) is a great example of an improperly tuned LTE/5G NR modem. Cellular connectivity was unreliable as could be, and the random No Network issue seemed consistent across T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, meanwhile a Pixel 7 or any other phone is stable and able to call/use data when this is occuring. If this were a Samsung phone, it is likely their internal engineering could have identified the Exynos modem issue and pushed a patch, but no one at Google was familiar with the modem they bought from Samsung and they certainly have little leverage over 'em to get issues like this resolved.
shrubble 3y ago
It shouldn't be allowed to be sold and Google should be facing fines for each day the functionality is missing, assuming it is a software problem.
- koheripbal 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Dobbs 3y ago
    Being able to call 911 is an essential part of a phone. To the point that Apple (and I'm assuming Google) both allow calling emergency services while the phone is locked.
    - ben-schaaf 3y ago
      In lots of countries it's also possible to call emergency numbers without a sim card.
      - mig39 3y ago
        When you take the SIM out of an iPhone (or turn off your eSIM), it displays “SOS” instead of a carrier ID.
        numpad0 3y ago
        Yes, because 3GPP defines requisite emergency call flow, and FCC require phones able to make emergency calls without SIM. It's not a gesture of generosity.
      - kwhitefoot 3y ago
        It's not just possible, it is a feature of the GSM system. As far as I know it is a requirement in Europe.
  - kkielhofner 3y ago
surfingdino 3y ago
This is unacceptable. They should loose certification for the device.
NonAnonCoward 3y ago
My experience has been Pixel phones suck for calls in general. I know of 3 people with Pixel 3As that intermittently can’t receive calls. Often it takes 2-3 calls to these people in order to get 1 to go through. Setting the phones to prefer 4G has so far fixed the problem most reliably but the whole calling stack on pixel phones needs some work IMO.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  This is one thing I miss about the old Windows Phones (Nokia/Metro interface sucked, but damn) because it was a phone first, computer second. Most phones these days are computers (or cameras) first, phones last. For example, the WP would progressively disable things to keep the phone on for as long as possible. At 2am, after a night out, I'd usually be the only one who had a working phone to call a cab (pre-uber days) -- but that was the last feature to stop working before it died. IIRC, you could disable this functionality, but I don't know why you would want to.
  - hackmiester 3y ago
    BlackBerry had this too. May it rest in peace.
- larntz 3y ago
  I have a pixel 6 pro and this has been my experience since they day I got it. I even had it replaced and still have to reset the cellular modem several times per week because I get the no service `!`. Starting to believe it is a T-Mobile service issue in my area. Previously had a pixel 2 on Verizon and never had a problem. Planning to leave T-Mobile in the near future.
  - zdragnar 3y ago
    Pixel 6 on AT&T, I don't think I've ever had this experience. Phone calls sound much better than my previous carrier (some cheap mvno) and things generally Just Work. Only complaint is that it's missing some things I hadn't realized were not stock Android, such as per-app volume control. I just might switch back to LG after this one dies, though the battery seems to be holding up much better so who knows.
naranha 3y ago
They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.
- Aachen 3y ago
  Do explain why! Is there a shortcut on the lock screen that you can't turn off or how? Two or my four smartphones have been Samsungs and, while I could call 112 on purpose, I don't know what might cause pocket dialing. Your comment about this being a feature rather than a bug on Pixels is funny though =)
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    Yes, it's possible to dial 911 from a locked phone. I assume that's a legal requirement; on its face it's pretty reasonable. I never used to lock my phone at all, but starting with the Pixel 3a I've been forced to do it by the fact that the phone interprets rubbing against my leg through my pocket as a stream of commands. I wish manufacturers would go back to the non-crazy screens they used to make. Anyway, since locking the phone doesn't disable the ability to call 911, this is a constant risk, though I don't believe I've made an accidental call yet. (Or maybe I would have, if my phones weren't Pixels!) I have mangled a text note I was keeping on my phone beyond recovery when I once put my phone in my pocket without manually locking it first.
  - naranha 3y ago
    No, I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement in the EU. I now keep my phone always with the screen turned away from my leg in my pocket and that seems to prevent it well enough, even though I still often get to almost calling 911 when I take it out of my pocket with my hand.
    - Aachen 3y ago
      > I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement But my question was: what is the it that your phone has? I don't have such a button on my lock screen. There's a camera and a flashlight shortcut (too few shortcuts for my liking but better than bare android with zero shortcuts)
turminal 3y ago
Why would they design the system in a way that enables an app (Microsoft Teams) to interfere with emergency calls? I know this part is supposed to be fixed, but it's insane that this was part of the problem.
- Kwpolska 3y ago
  Teams is a telephony app, so perhaps Google's dialer tried to route the call through it and reacted incorrectly to failures.
- milosmns 3y ago
  It is possible to intercept a lot of Android system broadcasts. In the B2B world, we often had weird requests to take over the whole phone experience and do something different – made possible by the same core Android APIs that they ship both to business devices and personal devices. I'm also not surprised to read that Teams was to blame, because Skype had the same functionality back in the days.
lionkor 3y ago
When my OnePlus 8T lags, I sometimes press the power button a few times, because I'm impatient and I'm trying to get the screen to turn on. Pressing the power button 5 times dials the emergency service number by default, so I've almost called emergency services a few times already. I usually manage to cancel it before it dials, but wow.
- klausjensen 3y ago
  Just tested on pixel 7a. When I click the power button 5x, a screen appears with: - A large circle in the middle of the screen, which I have to press and hold for 3 seconds to initiate the call. - A slider to cancel the screen entirely So just hitting the powerbutton 5x does not actually make the call on Pixel 7a, just makes it easier.
- mook 3y ago
  FWIW, you can disable that in settings (both the power button thing, as well as the auto-dial if you prefer to get to that page via buttons). At least, if the 8T is similar to other phones.
subjectsigma 3y ago
This was the final straw for me and why I switched from a Pixel to an iPhone. I refuse to die because my $800 smart device couldn't get me help that would have otherwise been available. Apple may be a scummy company just like all the other ones but the one thing they do seem to take very seriously is safety. I'm sure other people feel the same way but it doesn't seem like this message is getting to Google.
- d3w4s9 3y ago
  To be fair, Samsung produces much more reliable phones than Google, especially their S series phones, if you wanted to stay in the Android system. They are also quite good with system updates and security updates -- not the best but top tier by Android standards.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  I did the exact same thing last year when I first heard of this (recurring) issue. Safety is not part of a promo packet, so who at Google cares to fix it? I hate how Apple infantilizes the user, but at least they have vision of making a product. Not a collection of promotion producing ideas.
  - snazz 3y ago
    Safety is definitely one of Apple’s key marketing points—you might have seen their ads for fall detection/emergency SOS on the Apple Watch or car crash detection on the iPhone.
    - thereisnojesus 3y ago
      Nope, I have not
      - snazz 3y ago
        I guess I’m jealous, then :) But more seriously, they do spend a lot of money and effort marketing those features and it must work well enough to be worth it.
syntaxing 3y ago
I tried to use my old pixel 3 recently as a hotspot. Blows my mind how it’s been broken for a while (according to online) and won’t ever be fixed since there’s no more software support. I ended up buying a used iPhone SE instead.
- diego_sandoval 3y ago
  I use a Pixel 3a with GrapheneOS as my daily driver.
  - syntaxing 3y ago
    How is it? Was debating rooting it and loading it but it was easier to get a cheap used iPhone SE.
    - diego_sandoval 3y ago
      The experience has been good for me, but I'm in no way an average smartphone user. The apps I use are mainly Whatsapp, Firefox and Spotify Lite. I think grapheneOS the best choice if you don't tolerate a proprietary OS on your smartphone. Disclaimer: Pixel 3a support on GrapheneOS is EOL, but you can still download it and install it. Some observations: - I have not had any calls dropped. - I don't remember a case where I couldn't get mobile data while being in an urban area. At least LTE and 3G work well. - UI is snappy. - You can install Google Play Services in a sandbox, but some apps, notoriously most banking apps, crash on launch, probably because they implement Play Integrity API. - If you install Google Play Services in the sandbox, Whatsapp messages arrive instantly. If you don't, they do sometimes, sometimes they take some time, and sometimes you need to launch the app to see the messages. - The default apps lack a cohesive UI appearance. The photo gallery looks as if it was taken from a 7 year old Android version. The clock app and settings app look up to date. The SMS app looks different from all the other apps mentioned. - The default app icons are in black and white, which doesn't look bad in itself, but your app list screen looks ugly when you start installing other apps whose icons are not black and white. - I don't remember a case of system apps crashing or the whole OS getting frozen in the 10 months that I've used it. And I don't remember feeling frustration because of system unresponsiveness.
tsunamifury 3y ago
I will say I have had plenty of similar issues across my iPhone devices. For a variety of reasons these phones fail to make calls. Drop calls or can’t dial 911. I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech. I worked on dialer for pixel and and am deeply familiar with these problems. Voice call tech is easily one of those mostly worthlessly convoluted spaces in mobile. That being said while I was there we put a huge priority on emergency calling — however the exec overseeing the space often complained about how hard dialer was and bemoaned all the required work because it never helped her promotions.
- Kwpolska 3y ago
  Emergency calls should have the highest priority on networks.
- nneonneo 3y ago
  When did you have problems dialing 911 with an iPhone? It seems like something worth reporting - feedback to Apple, public posting, etc. Dropped calls etc. do happen for a variety of reasons, but there have been next to no reports of iPhones being unable to dial 911 (assuming a decent cell signal, etc.), and that would be a much more serious issue.
- sentientslug 3y ago
  I’m going to be the one to say that you definitely didn’t have the same issue with an iPhone. As much as people love shitting on Google they love shitting on Apple 100x more and it would be front page news for days if what you are saying is true.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    I like using a heavily scrutinized phone. When Apple throttled my iPhone 6, there was so much media backlash that they responded by adding an option to disable the throttling. Android issues like this would likely get swept under the rug, especially with a non-Pixel device where someone else makes the hardware and both sides avoid blame.
- 3y ago
lopkeny12ko 3y ago
Funny, because I have the opposite problem. My Pixel dials 911 out of random and I always have to race to disconnect the call. Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the call it just disappeared from my watch. Totally useless! There should really be a hard-to-accidentally-accept confirmation dialog for any kind of automated emergency dial feature. This is ridiculous because this is probably the 3rd time this has happened to me.
- postalrat 3y ago
  How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS. It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time
  - OtomotO 3y ago
    After I retired my last smartphone, a Nokia something, the same thing happened. I used it purely as a mp3 player when walking the woods and it would randomly call the emergency line (not 911 in my country) I barely could cancel the call before it went through as of course I was walking and had headphones in. I figured it had something to do with a button... it got more annoying over time so what I did to fix it was: change the emergency number to my girlfriend`s
  - skipkey 3y ago
    I had this happen with my iPhone a few years ago. Basically there’s a setting where some combination of the side buttons pressed together calls 911. I was in a borrowed car and the cup holder was just the right width to do this when I hit a bump. The very nice 911 operator told me it happened all the time. After the second time it happened I tracked down the setting to disable it.
mostthingsweb 3y ago
If Google employees actually used the phones they build we wouldn't have a lot of the issues we have them. I'm still annoyed that the little weather icon on the home screen has about a 2x2 pixel hitbox. Edit: hitbox not hotbox...
- lern_too_spel 3y ago
  When it appears at all. What kind of UI designer thinks it's OK not to show the weather most of the time when the user explicitly configured the settings to show it?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
exabrial 3y ago
When I had a Pixel4, I witnessed a car accident in which someone got hurt quite substantially. Hard as a tried, the process of dialing 911 failed multiple times; the phone app simply crashed and left me with a blank screen or the home screen. I put a complaint in with my carrier but nothing was ever done. And of course Google could give 0 fucks with their customer support. A few months later, I needed to call 911 for an emergency and it did work, but yeah... we got "Eventual Consistency" for an emergency.
- ouid 3y ago
  [dead]
- TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
  > A few months later I’m surprised you kept the phone. I would have gotten a new phone if I discovered my current one couldn’t dial 911 properly.
  - hfjjbf 3y ago
    [dead]
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    Well, how many times in your life do you call 911? I am in my forties and I maybe used my local equivalent 3 times and in every occurence someone else could have made the call. And I've only used my mobile phone since my late 20's, it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes.
    - kmlx 3y ago
      you only need it to fail once…
    - TheHappyOddish 3y ago
      > it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes How strange. That's the main reason I expect most people (especially on HN) would own a mobile phone at all. The ability to be contactable/make contact in an emergency is the greatest value it holds, surely?
yolovoe 3y ago
I used to have a Pixel 2 XL and then later a Pixel 5a. Went through them really fast as the hardware was pretty bad and the phone would just decide to stop turning on at some point. Same thing happened to a relative I gave a Pixel 5a. Phone didn't last a year. Don't get me started on the Pixel buds. I got tired of contacting customer support for replacements. That's when I decided not to buy hardware from Google again, and also stopped using Android. Experience in iPhone has been great so far. Phone's fast despite being several generations behind, don't have to worry about not getting security updates.
- aners_xyz 3y ago
  Got gifted a pair of pixel buds gen 2. I liked them. Accidentally sent them through a wash cycle killing the left one. Eventually straight up lost the left one. Thought nothing of it until I changed phones and realized a hardware limitation meant you needed both to pair to a new device. Dumb but I needed a new one anyways so… I contacted support after not seeing spares were being sold. They gave me an 25$ store credit… Ended up selling the case and working earbud and getting a different brand. Recently changed phones and them pulling the headphone jack from the A series after the 5 was a non-starter for me. I still use wired headphones and plug my aux into my car and other places :/ kinda mind boggling
- milosmns 3y ago
  Another anecdotal example here: Nexus 4, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 6 Pro – never had any issues whatsoever, all phones still alive and kicking at my grandparents' places. Yes, most of them tied to the wall now... but hey, they're fine for showing some photos and displaying current time or setting alarms. Interestingly, I also used Samsung's Note 9 and 10+, iPhone 12, iPhone 14 Pro Max – daily, also with no issues... other than disliking Samsung's software. (I was/am doing a lot of mobile work so I test a lot of phones) After years of doing this kind of testing, it's hard for me to believe that the entire batches of phones are so fundamentally broken... I'd rather bet on software issues, but who knows.
  - lost_tourist 3y ago
    I had two pixels suffer heat deaths on me (after random boot cycles) switching around iphone 8 time and haven't had a problem out of the 3 devices I've owned from them. Got tired of Android being weird plus relaying everything I did on the phone to google to share with 3rd parties.
fluidcruft 3y ago
All cell phones with 911 functionality should have a way to periodically test that the 911 feature is fully functional. The reality is that I rarely even make a phone call anymore... but I don't even know whether being able to make a call implies 911 works? And I don't know if its still true but there used to be pretty significant fines for calling 911 so I'm not just going to dial 911 and say "making sure this still works!" The phone should just be doing various deadman switch type tests on the network/911 health-checks and report to me whether it is working or not working. It has a freaking GPS and can identify cell towers, so it should be pretty trivial to maintain test data and schedule. Relying on life-critical devices that can't be tested seems really sketchy.
- gok 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - unethical_ban 3y ago
    No, this is entirely untrue.
  - metiscus 3y ago
    https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/ https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/ From that link: Test calls confirm that your local 911 service can receive your 911 call and has the correct location information. Test calls can be scheduled by contacting your local 911 call center via its non-emergency phone number.
    - im3w1l 3y ago
      I'm sure that's labor intensive, and the only reason they can provide such a service is that almost no one uses it.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  > I rarely even make a phone call anymore This is true for many young people. Turns out phone calls are pretty much the only time the earpiece speaker gets used on a phone. Lots of people have killed their earpiece speaker by filling it with sand, salt, water, lint, etc. Speakers seem to die more easily when never used, presumably because use vibrates dirt out. End result: When they call 911 they can't hear anything. My phone currently has a dead earpiece speaker, and I just know that if I need to call 911, it better be on speakerphone.
perryizgr8 3y ago
Realistically, if you care about software/hardware quality at all in your smartphone, there are only two options: Iphone or Galaxy S phones. Anything else and you have to be ready to face a bunch of problems.
tenken 3y ago
I had a Bluetooth keyboard in a backpack turned On in the trunk of my car while driving .... random key presses while driving from bumps in the road managed to dial 911 ... or make the phone think it was an emergency and 911 was called. Not fun. The keyboard was spamming gibberish, eg NN nZzz1457_+-5hhhsvb .... etc It took me a while to figure out why the phone appeared possessed...
WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
Sometimes people ask me, why do I use an iPhone when Android phones are so much better in this or that respect. And the thing is, none of iPhones I had my hands on (since 4S maybe) have never failed me as phones. When I need to place or receive a call, the call is placed or received. No shenanigans with sound, microphone, connections. If there is a connection problem, I can be 100% sure it's the carrier. With Android, all bets are off. When Maemo was a thing, all bets were off, it could enter a 100% CPU-hogging busy loop during a call and you would be SOL, or you wouldn't be able to hang up, or some such shit. The only other cellular thing that I could 100% rely on was my Nokia 1280 and a 1112 before it, but 2G networks are being wound down in my area, alas.
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  > And the thing is, none of iPhones I had my hands on (since 4S maybe) have never failed me as phones. When I need to place or receive a call, the call is placed or received. No shenanigans with sound, microphone, connections. If there is a connection problem, I can be 100% sure it's the carrier. Just saying, I've used only Android phones since 2009 or so, and I've never once had a problem with the phone functionality. It's not like this is some problem with Android in general.
linux2647 3y ago
A bit OT: but TIL you can schedule a test 911 call.
RicoElectrico 3y ago
There should be some kind of test number twin of 911 that works exactly the same (without SIM, supplying E911 data), but just plays a pre-recorded message optionally with some "debug" info.
- IshKebab 3y ago
  That is such an obviously good idea I'm surprised it doesn't exist. Apparently the official way to test it in the UK is to email them and schedule a test. They say they use the real 999 because that's the best way to guarantee that it works, and that's true - but there's definitely utility in having an almost-real number that you can test at any time guilt free. They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.
  - anticensor 3y ago
    For maximum lore, that testing number should be set to +44 118 999 88199 9119 725 3.
    - catgirlinspace 3y ago
      yes!!!!! best emergency phone number. i heard the drivers are better looking too
- yardstick 3y ago
  Maybe, but you would still need to test that 911 itself works.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  The article says to test by calling the non-emergency number, but that seems like a really unrealistic test. Even if they offered a test version of 911, I wouldn't trust that it works exactly the same as 911.
  - iudqnolq 3y ago
    If you follow the link you'll see the procedure is you call the non-emergency number to ask for a time and location slot where you're allowed to call the real 911 number for test purposes. This let's them schedule you for a time where they predict lower demand. Seems sensible to me.
matchbok 3y ago
Android is such a mess - this should have criminal penalties. Anyone working in the Android SDK knows how poorly designed it is.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago
  What does this have to do with Android? Other Android mobiles do not have any difficulty making emergency calls.
  - matchbok 3y ago
    They certainly have in the past. There are core issues with how Android deals with phone apps and prioritization. Quite a few threads on here about previous 911 issues.
sdo72 3y ago
My Pixel journey from 1 to 6A ended a few months ago, I can't no longer trust Pixel phones. Even though they seem very fast and responsive at first, they're not reliable in many situations like calling 911, getting Wifi signal, receiving calls, ... All of Pixel phones I got since the 1st version have some kind of major issues. I trusted Google with the software and I thought I could continue, but I had to switch to iPhones.
1024core 3y ago
Again? I feel like I've heard of this bug before.
joecool1029 3y ago
Possibly related issue that LOS patched not too long ago: https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_packages_apps_Dialer/+/364891 https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_packages_ap...
kwhitefoot 3y ago
Surely it is a legal requirement that mobile phones be able to call the emergency services? If it doesn't do that then surely a crime has been committed?
- thesis 3y ago
  A crime? Not sure I agree in a isolated incident. But I feel like it should be a crime to ignore a known issue like this.
johndhi 3y ago
In my experience (which is about as relevant to this topic as one can imagine), regulatory-required features in software always get built in really shitty ways. These are some of the reasons I've seen for why: -the regulation isn't sufficiently flexible to allow the company to build it in a way that makes the most sense for their system -for the same reason testing, user research and feedback largely don't matter -the projects are led by legal or compliance teams who are generally terrible at building features -the feature isn't requested by customers so the company has very limited dialogue with the user about it -the feature will not make money so no one at the company is incentivized to build it well or spend time on it
- guraf 3y ago
  If what you said was true, we'd see the same poor quality in Samsung or Apple phones. Yet we don't.
  - johndhi 3y ago
    Those companies are a little more like traditional hardware companies than Google who is more of a software company. We do see poor e911 implementation at other software companies (twilio, five9, etc)
noonething 3y ago
Guess I'll pray-to-dial 911 now!
thrillgore 3y ago
Incredible. My phone does everything except the make calls part.
bell-cot 3y ago
It seems pretty odd that liability-lawsuit lawyers haven't managed to monetize this "feature" enough to push "removing" it further up the priority list. Anybody have some insight?
basisword 3y ago
I would like to see this lead to corporate manslaughter charges. I swear I've seen reports of this for years for multiple Pixel phones and the fact it's still ongoing is incredibly negligent.
mcbrienollie 3y ago
If you would be isolated on a random place and given the chance to bring only one item, you would most probably pick the phone. On both ethical and user-experience cases, this is completely unacceptable. Google is just bringing the trust issues for such a silly bug.
imchillyb 3y ago
"BEEEERRRRREEEERRREEEEEP! This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. BEEEERRRRREEEERRREEEEEP!" Certainly this could be implemented with a feedback system, in order to guarantee access to emergency services?
milosmns 3y ago
Interesting. This might not be a bug in Google's dialer (or the OS, or hardware). Based on my past experience building B2B SIP clients, I remember that there are ways to intercept many of the Android system broadcasts. I'd bet on that being the root cause. Intercepting would look like the app is crashing, when instead it would be attempting to re-route requests to a different app; someone else mentioned they detected Microsoft Teams doing that. I remember Skype also had this feature, so it sounds plausible. In the B2B world, we often had weird requests e.g. to take over the whole phone experience and do something different – this was made possible by the same core Android SDKs that they ship both to business devices and personal devices. For example, we were required to move each 911 call to our app first, then check if we can route it quicker through the internal PBXs, and if not – send it back to the native/built-in dialer. This was possible a couple of years ago, we built it. I assume it's still possible because it's really rare that you need this kind of functionality... releasing such an app also requires a special review from Google. Maybe Google sees it as a low risk to the user experience and allows some apps to still do it, at least until something like this issue happes.
davewasthere 3y ago
Had exactly the same thing in Australia when trying a 000 (Australia's emergency number) call with my Pixel 6 Pro after watching somebody run off the road and smash into a pole. Fortunately I had the local police station number and was able to call that just fine, but not until a few failed attempts at the real emergency number. That said, another good option is attempting to call 112. Which is an emergency number in many countries. (Works in the US too). But yeah, it's not good.
- Grimburger 3y ago
  Disheartening to see this. I was planning on getting a pixel for my next phone and hoping this might be a 911 only issue but obviously it's related to emergency dialing all-round. > 112. Which is an emergency number in many countries. There's a lot of the planet where 112 will work, often as a redirect to the actual number.
freitzkriesler2 3y ago
Please write a complaint to the FCC about this folks. These complaints are taken very seriously and they do follow up on them. Issue type is equipment and send the comaint about it to your carrier. The carrier will then put pressure on Google directly. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002206106 https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/1150022...

395 points by vpt 3y ago

It's really absurd how such a problem still exists. Couldn't a separate method be used for emergency calling? For example drop to 3g, don't use the dialer app but a separate "emergency" app.

usr1106 3y ago
I thought 3G networks have been shut down in the US? (Not living there but I remotely maintain some devices with cellular modems over there, so the topic has somewhat of professional interest.)
- spacebouy 3y ago
  They have not. 2G networks have been shut down, however.
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    Incorrect, T-Mobile's 2G network is active until this coming April. Both their 3G networks (theirs and the Sprint legacy one) are shut down as they used more spectrum. Keeping GSM going the spectrum use is minimal.
phh 3y ago
Having dedicated code path for 911 is literally the problem. It makes it legally almost impossible to test in many countries (since in many countries you're not allowed to dial 911 if you don't have an emergency)
- colanderman 3y ago
  Test in a Faraday cage with an isolated base station.
- phowat 3y ago
  The article explains how to schedule a test call to 911.
- numpad0 3y ago
  Just call nearest Rohde & Schwarz office and get a signaling tester... If you're doing phone firmware, there should be couple extra briefcases of cash for that. No need to call actual 911 just to test a dev branch build.
- toast0 3y ago
  Which countries? Where I live, in the US, if you want to make a callback to a police detective, you have to call 911 and ask to be transfered. It's clearly not an emergency, and the detective will tell you to do it. This police department doesn't have a phone system that allows the public to call a non-emergency number and have their calls routed. But most places I've lived in the US had a non-emergency police number, and non-emergency 911 calls were very discouraged. If you have a good reason to make them for network or device testing, you'd just need to schedule a time to make a test call, stay on the line and tell the operator, etc. Device development would be well served by using a tower simulator in a Faraday cage, as a sibling suggested. But a responsible developer would do a few tests on live networks during release acceptance testing.
chrismorgan 3y ago
If talking about the US (though it’s not the only place that uses the number 911, and I would imagine that other countries’ numbers would be affected): all the major 3G networks have been shut down, so your current options for major networks are T-Mobile’s 2G network (which I successfully dialed 911 with a couple of months ago while in the US, but it’s only spottily available, and it’s being shut down next year), or 4G networks. More generally, though, using different code paths for emergency dialing is the root of the problem in the first place—you want to minimise special handling of things like this, because less-tested paths are much more likely to be buggy. Consider also: error handling code is pretty much the buggiest out there, because it’s seldom tested.
- usr1106 3y ago
  At least 2 decades ago when I worked with phones the phone as a list of emergency numbers which could be updated to country-spefic values. Often 000, 112, and 911 were always present. Once the software notices one of these numbers dialled call handling will go a completely different code path than normal calls. I have no idea how things work in Android, where you obviously must have VoIP hooks?
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    >I have no idea how things work in Android, where you obviously must have VoIP hooks? Yes, there's emergency IMS (basically volte/vonr version of SIP) profiles the phone is supposed to register to and all the carriers towers advertise emergency numbers in their signaling.
- alerighi 3y ago
  The problem with 4G (and 5G) is that it supports only internet traffic. Phone traffic is passed trough VoLTE that is VOIP on the network. Is something that is fairly new, few years ago only a couple of operators in my country even supported that, and thus phones had to drop to 3G to handle calls. Also VOIP is not that reliable and presents problems especially with different networks. The problem is when the internet connection is not so stable, and thus VoLTE doesn't work that well. The safer option would be to drop to 3G or even 2G if available to complete emergency calls.
d3w4s9 3y ago
Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but when one is in such a situation and they happen to have an app like Skype, people can use it for emergency calls (support in the US)
covercash 3y ago
It would be great if when 911 is dialed the phone dropped into a “black box” state where all unnecessary functionality is suspended to maximize battery and signal. It could alert emergency contacts w/ location pings, start recording voice and video, and go into a heightened security mode to avoid tampering.
- readams 3y ago
  No you definitely don't want the phone doing confusing and weird things during an emergency. You want it to behave in the way the user is accustomed.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

I'm just wondering when Google will sunset the 911 dialing feature. /s

1023bytes 3y ago
Analytics indicate that only a small percentage of people still use it and the engagement was low
- sgt 3y ago
  Plus, the users occasionally have a tendency not to remain as users of Google services for very long after.
- kotaKat 3y ago
  We'll bring it back as an RCS-reliant chat app and then waste half our time mocking Apple for it.
CoastalCoder 3y ago
New meaning for Killed by Google.

usr1106 3y ago

[flagged]

wunderland 3y ago
Who is downvoting this? It’s objectively true
fluidcruft 3y ago
Selling info to ambulance chasers and private first responders is probably a pretty good model. To fix everything all we really need to do is let Google sell the gravy.

nneonneo 3y ago

This article is about an incident from just last month, but the fact that there are 20+ failure reports over just Feb 2022-Jan 2023 (https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compiled_all_the_pixel_911emergency_call/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compi...), across multiple Pixel models, is insane. There’s something seriously wrong here.

shawnz 3y ago
Is there any data on how often this occurs with other brands, or what the failure rate was (i.e. how many attempts to call 911 succeeded in that time?) Otherwise 20+ reports certainly sounds bad but I don't really have a perspective on how bad it is. It could very well be that 20 failures across a year is within the expected failure rate due to unavoidable transient network issues.
- Kwpolska 3y ago
  The author of the linked Reddit post was unable to find anything for other Android brands, and only three cases across ten years for iPhones.
  - nneonneo 3y ago
    And, it’s worth pointing out that the sales volumes of iPhones and just Samsungs (not counting any other brand) are many times that of Pixel, so if there was an issue even nearly as frequent with those phones it would definitely have been noticed by now.
    - simfree 3y ago
      Samsung has probably automated this testing given the number of SKUs they support, and they definitely have a lot more developers who are familiar with the cellular modems they use (Exynos and Snapdragon) to fix up edge cases unlike Google. The Pixel 6 (Pro and non-Pro) is a great example of an improperly tuned LTE/5G NR modem. Cellular connectivity was unreliable as could be, and the random No Network issue seemed consistent across T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, meanwhile a Pixel 7 or any other phone is stable and able to call/use data when this is occuring. If this were a Samsung phone, it is likely their internal engineering could have identified the Exynos modem issue and pushed a patch, but no one at Google was familiar with the modem they bought from Samsung and they certainly have little leverage over 'em to get issues like this resolved.

shrubble 3y ago

It shouldn't be allowed to be sold and Google should be facing fines for each day the functionality is missing, assuming it is a software problem.

koheripbal 3y ago
[flagged]
- Dobbs 3y ago
  Being able to call 911 is an essential part of a phone. To the point that Apple (and I'm assuming Google) both allow calling emergency services while the phone is locked.
  - ben-schaaf 3y ago
    In lots of countries it's also possible to call emergency numbers without a sim card.
    - mig39 3y ago
      When you take the SIM out of an iPhone (or turn off your eSIM), it displays “SOS” instead of a carrier ID.
      - numpad0 3y ago
        Yes, because 3GPP defines requisite emergency call flow, and FCC require phones able to make emergency calls without SIM. It's not a gesture of generosity.
    - kwhitefoot 3y ago
      It's not just possible, it is a feature of the GSM system. As far as I know it is a requirement in Europe.
- kkielhofner 3y ago

surfingdino 3y ago

This is unacceptable. They should loose certification for the device.

NonAnonCoward 3y ago

My experience has been Pixel phones suck for calls in general. I know of 3 people with Pixel 3As that intermittently can’t receive calls. Often it takes 2-3 calls to these people in order to get 1 to go through. Setting the phones to prefer 4G has so far fixed the problem most reliably but the whole calling stack on pixel phones needs some work IMO.

withinboredom 3y ago
This is one thing I miss about the old Windows Phones (Nokia/Metro interface sucked, but damn) because it was a phone first, computer second. Most phones these days are computers (or cameras) first, phones last. For example, the WP would progressively disable things to keep the phone on for as long as possible. At 2am, after a night out, I'd usually be the only one who had a working phone to call a cab (pre-uber days) -- but that was the last feature to stop working before it died. IIRC, you could disable this functionality, but I don't know why you would want to.
- hackmiester 3y ago
  BlackBerry had this too. May it rest in peace.
larntz 3y ago
I have a pixel 6 pro and this has been my experience since they day I got it. I even had it replaced and still have to reset the cellular modem several times per week because I get the no service `!`. Starting to believe it is a T-Mobile service issue in my area. Previously had a pixel 2 on Verizon and never had a problem. Planning to leave T-Mobile in the near future.
- zdragnar 3y ago
  Pixel 6 on AT&T, I don't think I've ever had this experience. Phone calls sound much better than my previous carrier (some cheap mvno) and things generally Just Work. Only complaint is that it's missing some things I hadn't realized were not stock Android, such as per-app volume control. I just might switch back to LG after this one dies, though the battery seems to be holding up much better so who knows.

naranha 3y ago

They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.

Aachen 3y ago
Do explain why! Is there a shortcut on the lock screen that you can't turn off or how? Two or my four smartphones have been Samsungs and, while I could call 112 on purpose, I don't know what might cause pocket dialing. Your comment about this being a feature rather than a bug on Pixels is funny though =)
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  Yes, it's possible to dial 911 from a locked phone. I assume that's a legal requirement; on its face it's pretty reasonable. I never used to lock my phone at all, but starting with the Pixel 3a I've been forced to do it by the fact that the phone interprets rubbing against my leg through my pocket as a stream of commands. I wish manufacturers would go back to the non-crazy screens they used to make. Anyway, since locking the phone doesn't disable the ability to call 911, this is a constant risk, though I don't believe I've made an accidental call yet. (Or maybe I would have, if my phones weren't Pixels!) I have mangled a text note I was keeping on my phone beyond recovery when I once put my phone in my pocket without manually locking it first.
- naranha 3y ago
  No, I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement in the EU. I now keep my phone always with the screen turned away from my leg in my pocket and that seems to prevent it well enough, even though I still often get to almost calling 911 when I take it out of my pocket with my hand.
  - Aachen 3y ago
    > I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement But my question was: what is the it that your phone has? I don't have such a button on my lock screen. There's a camera and a flashlight shortcut (too few shortcuts for my liking but better than bare android with zero shortcuts)

turminal 3y ago

Why would they design the system in a way that enables an app (Microsoft Teams) to interfere with emergency calls? I know this part is supposed to be fixed, but it's insane that this was part of the problem.

Kwpolska 3y ago
Teams is a telephony app, so perhaps Google's dialer tried to route the call through it and reacted incorrectly to failures.
milosmns 3y ago
It is possible to intercept a lot of Android system broadcasts. In the B2B world, we often had weird requests to take over the whole phone experience and do something different – made possible by the same core Android APIs that they ship both to business devices and personal devices. I'm also not surprised to read that Teams was to blame, because Skype had the same functionality back in the days.

lionkor 3y ago

When my OnePlus 8T lags, I sometimes press the power button a few times, because I'm impatient and I'm trying to get the screen to turn on. Pressing the power button 5 times dials the emergency service number by default, so I've almost called emergency services a few times already. I usually manage to cancel it before it dials, but wow.

klausjensen 3y ago
Just tested on pixel 7a. When I click the power button 5x, a screen appears with: - A large circle in the middle of the screen, which I have to press and hold for 3 seconds to initiate the call. - A slider to cancel the screen entirely So just hitting the powerbutton 5x does not actually make the call on Pixel 7a, just makes it easier.
mook 3y ago
FWIW, you can disable that in settings (both the power button thing, as well as the auto-dial if you prefer to get to that page via buttons). At least, if the 8T is similar to other phones.

subjectsigma 3y ago

This was the final straw for me and why I switched from a Pixel to an iPhone. I refuse to die because my $800 smart device couldn't get me help that would have otherwise been available. Apple may be a scummy company just like all the other ones but the one thing they do seem to take very seriously is safety. I'm sure other people feel the same way but it doesn't seem like this message is getting to Google.

d3w4s9 3y ago
To be fair, Samsung produces much more reliable phones than Google, especially their S series phones, if you wanted to stay in the Android system. They are also quite good with system updates and security updates -- not the best but top tier by Android standards.
0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
I did the exact same thing last year when I first heard of this (recurring) issue. Safety is not part of a promo packet, so who at Google cares to fix it? I hate how Apple infantilizes the user, but at least they have vision of making a product. Not a collection of promotion producing ideas.
- snazz 3y ago
  Safety is definitely one of Apple’s key marketing points—you might have seen their ads for fall detection/emergency SOS on the Apple Watch or car crash detection on the iPhone.
  - thereisnojesus 3y ago
    Nope, I have not
    - snazz 3y ago
      I guess I’m jealous, then :) But more seriously, they do spend a lot of money and effort marketing those features and it must work well enough to be worth it.

syntaxing 3y ago

I tried to use my old pixel 3 recently as a hotspot. Blows my mind how it’s been broken for a while (according to online) and won’t ever be fixed since there’s no more software support. I ended up buying a used iPhone SE instead.

diego_sandoval 3y ago
I use a Pixel 3a with GrapheneOS as my daily driver.
- syntaxing 3y ago
  How is it? Was debating rooting it and loading it but it was easier to get a cheap used iPhone SE.
  - diego_sandoval 3y ago
    The experience has been good for me, but I'm in no way an average smartphone user. The apps I use are mainly Whatsapp, Firefox and Spotify Lite. I think grapheneOS the best choice if you don't tolerate a proprietary OS on your smartphone. Disclaimer: Pixel 3a support on GrapheneOS is EOL, but you can still download it and install it. Some observations: - I have not had any calls dropped. - I don't remember a case where I couldn't get mobile data while being in an urban area. At least LTE and 3G work well. - UI is snappy. - You can install Google Play Services in a sandbox, but some apps, notoriously most banking apps, crash on launch, probably because they implement Play Integrity API. - If you install Google Play Services in the sandbox, Whatsapp messages arrive instantly. If you don't, they do sometimes, sometimes they take some time, and sometimes you need to launch the app to see the messages. - The default apps lack a cohesive UI appearance. The photo gallery looks as if it was taken from a 7 year old Android version. The clock app and settings app look up to date. The SMS app looks different from all the other apps mentioned. - The default app icons are in black and white, which doesn't look bad in itself, but your app list screen looks ugly when you start installing other apps whose icons are not black and white. - I don't remember a case of system apps crashing or the whole OS getting frozen in the 10 months that I've used it. And I don't remember feeling frustration because of system unresponsiveness.

tsunamifury 3y ago

I will say I have had plenty of similar issues across my iPhone devices. For a variety of reasons these phones fail to make calls. Drop calls or can’t dial 911. I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech. I worked on dialer for pixel and and am deeply familiar with these problems. Voice call tech is easily one of those mostly worthlessly convoluted spaces in mobile. That being said while I was there we put a huge priority on emergency calling — however the exec overseeing the space often complained about how hard dialer was and bemoaned all the required work because it never helped her promotions.

Kwpolska 3y ago
Emergency calls should have the highest priority on networks.
nneonneo 3y ago
When did you have problems dialing 911 with an iPhone? It seems like something worth reporting - feedback to Apple, public posting, etc. Dropped calls etc. do happen for a variety of reasons, but there have been next to no reports of iPhones being unable to dial 911 (assuming a decent cell signal, etc.), and that would be a much more serious issue.
sentientslug 3y ago
I’m going to be the one to say that you definitely didn’t have the same issue with an iPhone. As much as people love shitting on Google they love shitting on Apple 100x more and it would be front page news for days if what you are saying is true.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  I like using a heavily scrutinized phone. When Apple throttled my iPhone 6, there was so much media backlash that they responded by adding an option to disable the throttling. Android issues like this would likely get swept under the rug, especially with a non-Pixel device where someone else makes the hardware and both sides avoid blame.
3y ago

lopkeny12ko 3y ago

Funny, because I have the opposite problem. My Pixel dials 911 out of random and I always have to race to disconnect the call. Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the call it just disappeared from my watch. Totally useless! There should really be a hard-to-accidentally-accept confirmation dialog for any kind of automated emergency dial feature. This is ridiculous because this is probably the 3rd time this has happened to me.

postalrat 3y ago
How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS. It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time
- OtomotO 3y ago
  After I retired my last smartphone, a Nokia something, the same thing happened. I used it purely as a mp3 player when walking the woods and it would randomly call the emergency line (not 911 in my country) I barely could cancel the call before it went through as of course I was walking and had headphones in. I figured it had something to do with a button... it got more annoying over time so what I did to fix it was: change the emergency number to my girlfriend`s
- skipkey 3y ago
  I had this happen with my iPhone a few years ago. Basically there’s a setting where some combination of the side buttons pressed together calls 911. I was in a borrowed car and the cup holder was just the right width to do this when I hit a bump. The very nice 911 operator told me it happened all the time. After the second time it happened I tracked down the setting to disable it.

mostthingsweb 3y ago

If Google employees actually used the phones they build we wouldn't have a lot of the issues we have them. I'm still annoyed that the little weather icon on the home screen has about a 2x2 pixel hitbox. Edit: hitbox not hotbox...

lern_too_spel 3y ago
When it appears at all. What kind of UI designer thinks it's OK not to show the weather most of the time when the user explicitly configured the settings to show it?
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

exabrial 3y ago

When I had a Pixel4, I witnessed a car accident in which someone got hurt quite substantially. Hard as a tried, the process of dialing 911 failed multiple times; the phone app simply crashed and left me with a blank screen or the home screen. I put a complaint in with my carrier but nothing was ever done. And of course Google could give 0 fucks with their customer support. A few months later, I needed to call 911 for an emergency and it did work, but yeah... we got "Eventual Consistency" for an emergency.

ouid 3y ago
[dead]
TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
> A few months later I’m surprised you kept the phone. I would have gotten a new phone if I discovered my current one couldn’t dial 911 properly.
- hfjjbf 3y ago
  [dead]
- prmoustache 3y ago
  Well, how many times in your life do you call 911? I am in my forties and I maybe used my local equivalent 3 times and in every occurence someone else could have made the call. And I've only used my mobile phone since my late 20's, it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes.
  - kmlx 3y ago
    you only need it to fail once…
  - TheHappyOddish 3y ago
    > it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes How strange. That's the main reason I expect most people (especially on HN) would own a mobile phone at all. The ability to be contactable/make contact in an emergency is the greatest value it holds, surely?

yolovoe 3y ago

I used to have a Pixel 2 XL and then later a Pixel 5a. Went through them really fast as the hardware was pretty bad and the phone would just decide to stop turning on at some point. Same thing happened to a relative I gave a Pixel 5a. Phone didn't last a year. Don't get me started on the Pixel buds. I got tired of contacting customer support for replacements. That's when I decided not to buy hardware from Google again, and also stopped using Android. Experience in iPhone has been great so far. Phone's fast despite being several generations behind, don't have to worry about not getting security updates.

aners_xyz 3y ago
Got gifted a pair of pixel buds gen 2. I liked them. Accidentally sent them through a wash cycle killing the left one. Eventually straight up lost the left one. Thought nothing of it until I changed phones and realized a hardware limitation meant you needed both to pair to a new device. Dumb but I needed a new one anyways so… I contacted support after not seeing spares were being sold. They gave me an 25$ store credit… Ended up selling the case and working earbud and getting a different brand. Recently changed phones and them pulling the headphone jack from the A series after the 5 was a non-starter for me. I still use wired headphones and plug my aux into my car and other places :/ kinda mind boggling
milosmns 3y ago
Another anecdotal example here: Nexus 4, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 6 Pro – never had any issues whatsoever, all phones still alive and kicking at my grandparents' places. Yes, most of them tied to the wall now... but hey, they're fine for showing some photos and displaying current time or setting alarms. Interestingly, I also used Samsung's Note 9 and 10+, iPhone 12, iPhone 14 Pro Max – daily, also with no issues... other than disliking Samsung's software. (I was/am doing a lot of mobile work so I test a lot of phones) After years of doing this kind of testing, it's hard for me to believe that the entire batches of phones are so fundamentally broken... I'd rather bet on software issues, but who knows.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  I had two pixels suffer heat deaths on me (after random boot cycles) switching around iphone 8 time and haven't had a problem out of the 3 devices I've owned from them. Got tired of Android being weird plus relaying everything I did on the phone to google to share with 3rd parties.

fluidcruft 3y ago

All cell phones with 911 functionality should have a way to periodically test that the 911 feature is fully functional. The reality is that I rarely even make a phone call anymore... but I don't even know whether being able to make a call implies 911 works? And I don't know if its still true but there used to be pretty significant fines for calling 911 so I'm not just going to dial 911 and say "making sure this still works!" The phone should just be doing various deadman switch type tests on the network/911 health-checks and report to me whether it is working or not working. It has a freaking GPS and can identify cell towers, so it should be pretty trivial to maintain test data and schedule. Relying on life-critical devices that can't be tested seems really sketchy.

gok 3y ago
[flagged]
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  No, this is entirely untrue.
- metiscus 3y ago
  https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/ https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/ From that link: Test calls confirm that your local 911 service can receive your 911 call and has the correct location information. Test calls can be scheduled by contacting your local 911 call center via its non-emergency phone number.
  - im3w1l 3y ago
    I'm sure that's labor intensive, and the only reason they can provide such a service is that almost no one uses it.
londons_explore 3y ago
> I rarely even make a phone call anymore This is true for many young people. Turns out phone calls are pretty much the only time the earpiece speaker gets used on a phone. Lots of people have killed their earpiece speaker by filling it with sand, salt, water, lint, etc. Speakers seem to die more easily when never used, presumably because use vibrates dirt out. End result: When they call 911 they can't hear anything. My phone currently has a dead earpiece speaker, and I just know that if I need to call 911, it better be on speakerphone.

perryizgr8 3y ago

Realistically, if you care about software/hardware quality at all in your smartphone, there are only two options: Iphone or Galaxy S phones. Anything else and you have to be ready to face a bunch of problems.

tenken 3y ago

I had a Bluetooth keyboard in a backpack turned On in the trunk of my car while driving .... random key presses while driving from bumps in the road managed to dial 911 ... or make the phone think it was an emergency and 911 was called. Not fun. The keyboard was spamming gibberish, eg NN nZzz1457_+-5hhhsvb .... etc It took me a while to figure out why the phone appeared possessed...

WesolyKubeczek 3y ago

Sometimes people ask me, why do I use an iPhone when Android phones are so much better in this or that respect. And the thing is, none of iPhones I had my hands on (since 4S maybe) have never failed me as phones. When I need to place or receive a call, the call is placed or received. No shenanigans with sound, microphone, connections. If there is a connection problem, I can be 100% sure it's the carrier. With Android, all bets are off. When Maemo was a thing, all bets were off, it could enter a 100% CPU-hogging busy loop during a call and you would be SOL, or you wouldn't be able to hang up, or some such shit. The only other cellular thing that I could 100% rely on was my Nokia 1280 and a 1112 before it, but 2G networks are being wound down in my area, alas.

bigstrat2003 3y ago
> And the thing is, none of iPhones I had my hands on (since 4S maybe) have never failed me as phones. When I need to place or receive a call, the call is placed or received. No shenanigans with sound, microphone, connections. If there is a connection problem, I can be 100% sure it's the carrier. Just saying, I've used only Android phones since 2009 or so, and I've never once had a problem with the phone functionality. It's not like this is some problem with Android in general.

linux2647 3y ago

A bit OT: but TIL you can schedule a test 911 call.

RicoElectrico 3y ago

There should be some kind of test number twin of 911 that works exactly the same (without SIM, supplying E911 data), but just plays a pre-recorded message optionally with some "debug" info.

IshKebab 3y ago
That is such an obviously good idea I'm surprised it doesn't exist. Apparently the official way to test it in the UK is to email them and schedule a test. They say they use the real 999 because that's the best way to guarantee that it works, and that's true - but there's definitely utility in having an almost-real number that you can test at any time guilt free. They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.
- anticensor 3y ago
  For maximum lore, that testing number should be set to +44 118 999 88199 9119 725 3.
  - catgirlinspace 3y ago
    yes!!!!! best emergency phone number. i heard the drivers are better looking too
yardstick 3y ago
Maybe, but you would still need to test that 911 itself works.
hot_gril 3y ago
The article says to test by calling the non-emergency number, but that seems like a really unrealistic test. Even if they offered a test version of 911, I wouldn't trust that it works exactly the same as 911.
- iudqnolq 3y ago
  If you follow the link you'll see the procedure is you call the non-emergency number to ask for a time and location slot where you're allowed to call the real 911 number for test purposes. This let's them schedule you for a time where they predict lower demand. Seems sensible to me.

matchbok 3y ago

Android is such a mess - this should have criminal penalties. Anyone working in the Android SDK knows how poorly designed it is.

kwhitefoot 3y ago
What does this have to do with Android? Other Android mobiles do not have any difficulty making emergency calls.
- matchbok 3y ago
  They certainly have in the past. There are core issues with how Android deals with phone apps and prioritization. Quite a few threads on here about previous 911 issues.

sdo72 3y ago

My Pixel journey from 1 to 6A ended a few months ago, I can't no longer trust Pixel phones. Even though they seem very fast and responsive at first, they're not reliable in many situations like calling 911, getting Wifi signal, receiving calls, ... All of Pixel phones I got since the 1st version have some kind of major issues. I trusted Google with the software and I thought I could continue, but I had to switch to iPhones.

1024core 3y ago

Again? I feel like I've heard of this bug before.

joecool1029 3y ago

Possibly related issue that LOS patched not too long ago: https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_packages_apps_Dialer/+/364891 https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_packages_ap...

kwhitefoot 3y ago

Surely it is a legal requirement that mobile phones be able to call the emergency services? If it doesn't do that then surely a crime has been committed?

thesis 3y ago
A crime? Not sure I agree in a isolated incident. But I feel like it should be a crime to ignore a known issue like this.

johndhi 3y ago

In my experience (which is about as relevant to this topic as one can imagine), regulatory-required features in software always get built in really shitty ways. These are some of the reasons I've seen for why: -the regulation isn't sufficiently flexible to allow the company to build it in a way that makes the most sense for their system -for the same reason testing, user research and feedback largely don't matter -the projects are led by legal or compliance teams who are generally terrible at building features -the feature isn't requested by customers so the company has very limited dialogue with the user about it -the feature will not make money so no one at the company is incentivized to build it well or spend time on it

guraf 3y ago
If what you said was true, we'd see the same poor quality in Samsung or Apple phones. Yet we don't.
- johndhi 3y ago
  Those companies are a little more like traditional hardware companies than Google who is more of a software company. We do see poor e911 implementation at other software companies (twilio, five9, etc)

noonething 3y ago

Guess I'll pray-to-dial 911 now!

thrillgore 3y ago

Incredible. My phone does everything except the make calls part.

bell-cot 3y ago

It seems pretty odd that liability-lawsuit lawyers haven't managed to monetize this "feature" enough to push "removing" it further up the priority list. Anybody have some insight?

basisword 3y ago

I would like to see this lead to corporate manslaughter charges. I swear I've seen reports of this for years for multiple Pixel phones and the fact it's still ongoing is incredibly negligent.

mcbrienollie 3y ago

If you would be isolated on a random place and given the chance to bring only one item, you would most probably pick the phone. On both ethical and user-experience cases, this is completely unacceptable. Google is just bringing the trust issues for such a silly bug.

imchillyb 3y ago

"BEEEERRRRREEEERRREEEEEP! This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. BEEEERRRRREEEERRREEEEEP!" Certainly this could be implemented with a feedback system, in order to guarantee access to emergency services?

milosmns 3y ago

Interesting. This might not be a bug in Google's dialer (or the OS, or hardware). Based on my past experience building B2B SIP clients, I remember that there are ways to intercept many of the Android system broadcasts. I'd bet on that being the root cause. Intercepting would look like the app is crashing, when instead it would be attempting to re-route requests to a different app; someone else mentioned they detected Microsoft Teams doing that. I remember Skype also had this feature, so it sounds plausible. In the B2B world, we often had weird requests e.g. to take over the whole phone experience and do something different – this was made possible by the same core Android SDKs that they ship both to business devices and personal devices. For example, we were required to move each 911 call to our app first, then check if we can route it quicker through the internal PBXs, and if not – send it back to the native/built-in dialer. This was possible a couple of years ago, we built it. I assume it's still possible because it's really rare that you need this kind of functionality... releasing such an app also requires a special review from Google. Maybe Google sees it as a low risk to the user experience and allows some apps to still do it, at least until something like this issue happes.

davewasthere 3y ago

Had exactly the same thing in Australia when trying a 000 (Australia's emergency number) call with my Pixel 6 Pro after watching somebody run off the road and smash into a pole. Fortunately I had the local police station number and was able to call that just fine, but not until a few failed attempts at the real emergency number. That said, another good option is attempting to call 112. Which is an emergency number in many countries. (Works in the US too). But yeah, it's not good.

Grimburger 3y ago
Disheartening to see this. I was planning on getting a pixel for my next phone and hoping this might be a 911 only issue but obviously it's related to emergency dialing all-round. > 112. Which is an emergency number in many countries. There's a lot of the planet where 112 will work, often as a redirect to the actual number.

freitzkriesler2 3y ago

Please write a complaint to the FCC about this folks. These complaints are taken very seriously and they do follow up on them. Issue type is equipment and send the comaint about it to your carrier. The carrier will then put pressure on Google directly. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002206106 https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/1150022...