I dropped my Pixel in water and since it had previously cracked, it had lost the waterproofing. The water apparently shorted the power button and the screen. That was a fun night when the dead phone woke up and started dialling 112 repeatedly and there was nothing I could do short of smashing the damn thing with a hammer to stop it.
Every electronic device needs to have a physical disconnect for the power supply. It should be considered a severe enough fault to warrant not getting market approval if this is missing.
I had a similar issue - the glass on the back of my Pixel (5 I think?) cracked right by the power button, and it seemed to be kind of OK but I got a new phone anyway, but left the old one in my glove box of my car where I used it for the bluetooth entry to the parking garage at work (and because re-enrolling was a pain). It didn't have the sim setup or wifi enabled so didn't think much of it.
This worked fine for a few months, just turning it on at the gate then off afterwards and threw it back in the glove compartment.
Until one day driving home I heard a weird beeping, then a voice from the glove box asking what my emergency was. I shouted back pulling over and fumbling to get the phone out, and told the responder my phone had called them by itself. I was a little surprised as I thought every call, even abandoned, had to be followed up on, in case there was coercion? But I guess not if you just blame the phone. I guess the buttons had shorted to turn the phone on, then ended up going into the emergency call? I couldn't even turn it off at that point as the power button refused to work and the digitizer was partially non-functional.
A bit of a pain, and a (hopefully small) waste of an emergency responder's time, but I can see this sort of thing being relatively common - in "normal use" I've had my phone somehow end up on the emergency call menu, just being jostled and unlocked or fat fingering the wrong buttons, so wouldn't be surprised if unneeded emergency calls are relatively common on even fully functional devices.
But I guess that cost is worth paying if it's more convenient and quick when there is an emergency?
I also had a pixel begin to boot then make 911 calls upon getting moisture in it. I damaged the sim slot prying it out so it wouldn't dial 911 any more.
I figured my experience was a freak occurrence - how is this a (n=2) failure mode when getting wet!?
I had to disable the shortcuts on my iPhone because the toddler had discovered hold to dial 911 and talk to the nice lady.
Luckily I caught it before it became like the other case I heard of, where a kid learned he could get a fire truck to visit anytime he was bored and had a phone.
Same has happened here with our 2-year old, except we didn't get to it in time and have had the fire department show up on more than one occasion before we figured out what was happening.
There were also a handful of times we could hear a voice coming through the wife's phone where we narrowly avoided a few more visits.
This was all before we discovered how she actually calling 911. It's shocking to me Google didn't make more of a deal about this new "feature" when they rolled it out.
This definitely should have been opt-IN, not opt-out. Sure smells like a classic example of tech PMs making idealistic decisions that affect people in the real world without thinking through all of the consequences.
I start dialing 911 on my iphone when I think I’m turning the volume up but it doesn’t seem to be getting louder. Turns out I pressed the lock button N times and it starts dialing.
Years of iphone and I’m still not quick at blindly figuring out which set of buttons I’m touching.
> Luckily I caught it before it became like the other case I heard of, where a kid learned he could get a fire truck to visit anytime he was bored and had a phone.
Reminds me of the kid's book where a young girl (kindergarten age) really has to use the bathroom but can't find it so she calls 911 because she was taught "call 911 if and only if there is an emergency".
This is anecdotal but the same exact thing (albeit with an Apple Watch vs. Android) happened to me a few days ago- I had forgotten to turn on the watch's water mode before going in the water. After about like 5 minutes in the pool it started calling 911 for a medical emergency. My watch ended up calling 911 about 3 times (it probably tried to call them about 5 more times but I ended up taking it off in time to prevent those calls- since it wasn't responding to my inputs at all). I also got a call from the Sheriff's office a little bit later and had to sheepishly explain that my watch was spam calling 911.
Still unsure what happened with it exactly, but whatever was triggering it to do this seemed to not simply be due to water on the screen since it tried to call 911 again even when I put the watch back on hours later after it had dried. I have since power cycled it a few times and let it run out of battery and it hasn't tried getting me arrested for spoof calling 911 again, so that's promising.
Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc.
I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.
It isn't just a problem with Android. I volunteer for a small fire department. We respond to about 500 calls a year. Since January I can think of three times the automatic crash detection on iOS devices has called us out by mistake.
1) A person left their phone on their car and it fell off. Being a small town one of the volunteers was able to find the owner and bring them the phone.
2) A gps location in the middle of a lake. The best we figure is one of the people on a jet ski or wake boarding.
3) Some people jumping on a trampoline.
Each of these means 2-6 volunteers responding from home to the station and then spending 30-60 minutes driving around in large trucks looking for non-existent emergencies. Each call also gets an ambulance staffed with career paramedics.
On the other hand someone's Apple watch did call us and we found he had fallen and gotten stuck down in some bushes and did need our help.
There is lots of promise, but also the tax payers are footing the bill for the false positives, not to mention the added risk to responders.
I'm having an issue related to this right now actually. Some spec of dust or something must have gotten into the power button on my Pixel 4a, so very occasionally it'll jostle into such a position that every time I push the power button it registers as two presses. If I only press it once, it think I'm using the double-press shortcut to open the camera. This was mildly confusing the first few times it happened, but as I was trying to mess with it I triggered this emergency call shortcut (since it only requires 3 presses with this issue). Fortunately I noticed it the first time times it happened and was able to do the slide-to-cancel, so it avoided turning into a larger issue.
I've gotten it into a position where if this occurs I can blow near the power button which typically makes it go away for a day or so, but it was very scary walking around with the phone out before I understood the nature of the issue, because I wasn't sure if it would magically trigger the power button unprompted just sitting in my pocket. I've ordered a new phone (it was nearing time for an upgrade anyways) but I've yet to set it up, so I'm stuck with this for the time being.
I love Pixel phones, but stuff like this does seem to be a recurring issue. Sometimes my phone turns off and on again when I only press the power button once. Not a huge dealbreaker, just a pain to constantly have to think about.
I saw this happen to someone recently. Their phone was having other issues, so we were trying to reboot it, and Google changed which buttons you have to push to turn your phone off. You used to be able to just press the one button to turn the phone off, but now you have to press 2. So I think people might be pressing the power button a bunch of time now because they're trying to turn their phone off and don't realize you have to hold down 2 buttons now instead of one.
iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago.
Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly common enough for that to become a known issue.
Why is Android different? Why are third party Android devices seemingly so different?
> The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a problem by some people, with one Reddit post calling it "dangerous." Since then, there has been a steady stream of posts warning people about it.
It objectively has been a problem, and was a known issue, with Reddit posts warning others. There just weren't enough Pixels to cause this latest tsunami. That year-and-a-half delay from Samsung rolling out Android 12 was meant to be for testing - which apparently didn't catch everything.
Seems obvious to me: Power is opposite Volume on Samsung Android phones, but not on Pixel. Easy to hit both buttons at once, and iPhone may do something special to detect that.
My Blackberry Android phone is the same, I remember having to train myself not to hit power when I first got it because my previous phone wasn't like this.
Google made including the "emergency SOS" gesture a GMS requirement for Android 12 but left it up to OEMs to decide whether or not to enable it by default. I suspect this spike in emergency calls stems from a few factors:
1) Due to the general lag between Google pushing a new release out to AOSP and OEMs pushing out updates, many devices have only recently been updated to Android 12. OEMs with outsize market share pushing out updates will result in many more people - who probably don't know this gesture was added or how it's activated - accidentally triggering it.
2) Some OEMs may have flipped the switch in an OTA to turn the gesture from off by default to on by default.
It happens on iPhones and Watches as well, occasionally.
But if I remember correctly, the emergency call feature is something that is explicitly explained during the iOS/watchOS initial setup and/or upgrade procedure, at which point you can also elect to opt out, so at the very least, it's less of a surprise.
> Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly common enough for that to become a known issue.
It absolutely was a problem for me and I disabled it. I attach the phone to my car vent with an adapter and it slipped and when trying to adjust it called 911 twice while I was driving (couldn't pick up the first time).
How come such a critical shortcut be so unknown is a mystery to me. I can't imagine anyone ever used it intentionally.
Personally from my Samsung phone - it had enabled gestures by default. This allowed you to tap the screen a few times and it would present you with the lock screen which has the emergency call button. From personal experience - the phone will wake up and go into this menu if you sweat and have the phone in your pocket.
As an android user for 10+ years, and an avid one at that, this feature still managed to surprise me when my phone screen died in the office one day. I knew the phone was still working as the touch layer was still giving me feedback, but I was trying all the old tricks in the book, unaware that this feature is automatically switched on when you upgrade the phone. This was on a 2+ year old Samsung phone that released on a version prior to android 12
Android is usually pretty good at providing quick menu toggles for things like this, or indicating to you where/when a new feature has been added, but this was entirely hidden in sub-menus without me even realising. Unfortunate for the emergency dispatcher who had to listen to me frantically trying to understand what was happening with a broken phone screen.
I understand why this is an auto on feature for safety, but the lack of highlighting is really sub-par for the average user
> but this was entirely hidden in sub-menus without me even realising
For context in case it was missed in TFA: While Samsung has a settings page for the feature, some users report the page doesn't actually have an "off" switch. Some builds for the Galaxy S23 and S22 let you control things, like if emergency SOS should play a warning sound, but you can't actually turn off the power button shortcut.
I don't blame you for not realising, considering you were never notified, and likely not even given the option to turn it off.
I have a Samsung S20 FE and the touchscreen will occasionally become unresponsive. The way I found out Android has a panic 911 call function was by fiddling with the power button trying to reset my phone. Then the 911 countdown started and I couldn't cancel it because the touchscreen was still unresponsive :(
Literally happened to me on Friday. Samsung A52 and the screen was on but the backlight wouldn't come on, so it looked black in sunlight. Fiddled with it in frustration and it started dialing the emerency number and couldn't see the screen to cancel it. Very stressful, and a huge waste of emergency service time as they had to call back and double check (and take details).
This happened to me. Phone was in my pocket and just started making noise. I pull it out to see it had initiated an emergency call and I tried cancelling as fast as I could. Got a call back from dispatch to make sure I was ok. Kudos on them for their patience.
This was actually a large part of why I decided to buy a "flip" phone. With the screen closed, far fewer ways for me to have it activate while in my pocket.
This happened to me last month after I landed at Chicago O'Hare!
> Texting with 22911 (SMS/MMS)
> Chicago 911, we received a call from you, do you have a Police, Fire or medical emergency?
> 9-1-1 has ended this conversation. 9-1-1 will not receive additional replies to this message. Call 9-1-1 to report an emergency.
I didn't see any of this until I took the phone out of my pocket.
I don't think it was from pressing the power button five times. With the case I have on my S22 Ultra, it takes a fairly hard press. And with where I keep the phone in my pocket, it doesn't seem that it would have gotten pressed at all, much less five times. But maybe that was it after all.
Is there another way an Android phone can do an unexpected 911 call?
There's an emergency call option from the lockscreen (the one where you enter your pin/swipe if you don't just use your fingerprint) which I have set off a bunch of time in my pocket. Luckily I have my emergency contact set to my wife, so it calls her not emergency services. I _think_ I must accidentally put my phone in my pocket with the screen on, and then random movement gradually hits the few buttons needed.
Funny, I've never mistriggered this, but I constantly find my phone accidentally in airplane mode, with data turned off, with the torch on, etc.
Because Google doesn't understand the word "lock" in "lockscreen"
There's like a decade-old issue marked "won't fix", despite constant user complaints and non-Google manufacturers having a clear option for locking Quick Settings on the lock screen.
Just another papercut making me consider dropping the Pixel line and just buying something even cheaper than can run LineageOS. It's amazing the lengths Google goes to enact death by a million papercuts on their flagship OS.
Phones have and send IMEIs. These include a TAC [1] mapping directly to a phone model. The obvious solution would be to track false (accidental/misdial) calls, and if a phone model exceeds some metric (e.g. 5x the median), start fining/charging the manufacturer.
This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it.
Happened to me - phone in pocket, pressed button to increase volume, didn't seem to do much so I pressed it multiple times - but I was actually pressing the power button not the volume button. Cue 911 call.
This is one of many reasons we need an FDA for major software suppliers. The idea that a bug can be pushed to billions of devices with essentially no preventative oversight is bonkers to me. The only check (other than internal controls which may or may not work in a move fast and break things environment) is litigation years after the fact which may not be a deterrent anyways.
Imagine if pharmaceuticals worked the same way. Instead of requiring medical studies on small groups, any drug could just be released on the public. Who cares if it causes birth defects. Move fast and break things! Buyer beware. Once in a while you’d get a check for $20 in the mail after you find out you have some horrible incurable neurodegenerative disease.
This is quickly moving from annoyance to public nuisance to public safety emergency. Self-driving vehicle companies can push updates over the air that not only brick the vehicles, but endanger 3rd parties who never signed 95 page Terms and Conditions contracts. Obviously not all software needs to be subject to this regulation but some of it does.
If software had to go through the process of the FDA we'd be at the stage where VI was considered groundbreaking, and MS was considered a scrappy startup because IBM convinced regulators that anything but their business was dangerous.
>The idea that a bug can be pushed to billions of devices with essentially no preventative oversight is bonkers to me.
Eh, in this case this is just a gap for the FCC who already regulates 911 and it's implementation that needs patching. The FCC can be absolutely brutal in their enforcement execution. It's just they move slow as rocks.
> Self-driving vehicle companies can push updates over the air that not only brick the vehicles, but endanger 3rd parties who never signed 95 page Terms and Conditions contracts.
The NHTSA regulates vehicles via the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards). They are responsible for things as requiring e-braking, backup cameras and more. It's really their job and ability to crack down on self-driving vehicles and OTA in vehicles. They could very easily do it but the automakers of course throw tantrums and start getting their local senators to interfere.
Now, why doesn't anything happen? Well, it's part regulatory capture, part rotting federal government due to extremists.
Heh, a while back my phone went and died on me and I needed to get a new phone immediately so I could 2fa into stuff for work.
I went out and got the cheapest android phone I could find just temporarily. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was clear that whatever crummy little SoC they put in there was hardly capable of running the OS version they struck on it.
Often, the phone would lock up, but in a strange way. Only the rendering would freeze. There were several times an app would appear to completely lock up, and I would try to press the lock button of even restart it, but whatever app froze was still stuck on the screen, at least until it finally got going again and I realized that whatever frustrating tapping I was doing hit the emergency call button before the Lock Screen had even rendered. I had to explain to the operator about 5-6 times before I went and got a new phone.
I had this happen to me about a year ago when this first rolled out in the US on Pixel Devices. My phone's power button was broken and kept toggling (still is).
So, one day after this update, it ended up calling 911 on me and I had to explain no there's no problem, just my phone is garbage and called automatically. Did it a few times after that as well where I would have to scramble to cancel it.
I managed to make it to the menu described to turn off this feature. And gave up on fixing that device.
Really don't know what went on in the product owners minds to release this... There's plenty of people with finicky power buttons, children pressing things, general people pressing things hoping to make something work, accidental button presses, and so on...
Happened to me too, on a roller coaster funny enough.
I was at Busch Gardens in VA, riding their new coaster (Pantheon [1] for those curious). It's a fast, launched coaster and I guess the way I was sitting with the restraints hit the power button of my pixel 5 times and toggled the emergency call feature. I felt my smart watch vibrating with the ongoing call as we went up the top hat spike of the ride. Thankfully I was able to stop the call from my wrist before it connected. But that was the last time I didn't turn my phone off or put it in a locker before I got on a ride.
This puts them in the difficult position of changing up how emergency calls are made -- so anyone who might see this as a necessary feature will have to relearn their emergency button.
I'm somewhat curious what the data is on how many people use the "emergency call from locked screen" feature. Devices that detect crashes and such are a god send for safety. Being able to use the phone from locked state feels not nearly as useful.
Granted, this all became way worse with touch. I wouldn't be surprised if larger phones make it worse, too. I have loved my flip's ability to "close" and render this a non-issue. Wallet style cases also helped, back when I had a non foldable phone.
[+] [-] peanut-walrus|2 years ago|reply
Every electronic device needs to have a physical disconnect for the power supply. It should be considered a severe enough fault to warrant not getting market approval if this is missing.
[+] [-] kimixa|2 years ago|reply
This worked fine for a few months, just turning it on at the gate then off afterwards and threw it back in the glove compartment.
Until one day driving home I heard a weird beeping, then a voice from the glove box asking what my emergency was. I shouted back pulling over and fumbling to get the phone out, and told the responder my phone had called them by itself. I was a little surprised as I thought every call, even abandoned, had to be followed up on, in case there was coercion? But I guess not if you just blame the phone. I guess the buttons had shorted to turn the phone on, then ended up going into the emergency call? I couldn't even turn it off at that point as the power button refused to work and the digitizer was partially non-functional.
A bit of a pain, and a (hopefully small) waste of an emergency responder's time, but I can see this sort of thing being relatively common - in "normal use" I've had my phone somehow end up on the emergency call menu, just being jostled and unlocked or fat fingering the wrong buttons, so wouldn't be surprised if unneeded emergency calls are relatively common on even fully functional devices.
But I guess that cost is worth paying if it's more convenient and quick when there is an emergency?
[+] [-] unsignedint|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhardcastle|2 years ago|reply
I figured my experience was a freak occurrence - how is this a (n=2) failure mode when getting wet!?
[+] [-] labster|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bombcar|2 years ago|reply
Luckily I caught it before it became like the other case I heard of, where a kid learned he could get a fire truck to visit anytime he was bored and had a phone.
[+] [-] corywatilo|2 years ago|reply
There were also a handful of times we could hear a voice coming through the wife's phone where we narrowly avoided a few more visits.
This was all before we discovered how she actually calling 911. It's shocking to me Google didn't make more of a deal about this new "feature" when they rolled it out.
This definitely should have been opt-IN, not opt-out. Sure smells like a classic example of tech PMs making idealistic decisions that affect people in the real world without thinking through all of the consequences.
[+] [-] hombre_fatal|2 years ago|reply
Years of iphone and I’m still not quick at blindly figuring out which set of buttons I’m touching.
[+] [-] chimeracoder|2 years ago|reply
Reminds me of the kid's book where a young girl (kindergarten age) really has to use the bathroom but can't find it so she calls 911 because she was taught "call 911 if and only if there is an emergency".
[+] [-] methodical|2 years ago|reply
Still unsure what happened with it exactly, but whatever was triggering it to do this seemed to not simply be due to water on the screen since it tried to call 911 again even when I put the watch back on hours later after it had dried. I have since power cycled it a few times and let it run out of battery and it hasn't tried getting me arrested for spoof calling 911 again, so that's promising.
[+] [-] sowbug|2 years ago|reply
I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.
[+] [-] notmyuserlogin|2 years ago|reply
Each of these means 2-6 volunteers responding from home to the station and then spending 30-60 minutes driving around in large trucks looking for non-existent emergencies. Each call also gets an ambulance staffed with career paramedics.
On the other hand someone's Apple watch did call us and we found he had fallen and gotten stuck down in some bushes and did need our help.
There is lots of promise, but also the tax payers are footing the bill for the false positives, not to mention the added risk to responders.
[+] [-] treyd|2 years ago|reply
I've gotten it into a position where if this occurs I can blow near the power button which typically makes it go away for a day or so, but it was very scary walking around with the phone out before I understood the nature of the issue, because I wasn't sure if it would magically trigger the power button unprompted just sitting in my pocket. I've ordered a new phone (it was nearing time for an upgrade anyways) but I've yet to set it up, so I'm stuck with this for the time being.
[+] [-] plewd|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] topherPedersen|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fomine3|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kramerger|2 years ago|reply
What the hell is wrong with these people? We are humans, not a data science project.
[+] [-] danpalmer|2 years ago|reply
Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly common enough for that to become a known issue.
Why is Android different? Why are third party Android devices seemingly so different?
[+] [-] xethos|2 years ago|reply
> The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a problem by some people, with one Reddit post calling it "dangerous." Since then, there has been a steady stream of posts warning people about it.
It objectively has been a problem, and was a known issue, with Reddit posts warning others. There just weren't enough Pixels to cause this latest tsunami. That year-and-a-half delay from Samsung rolling out Android 12 was meant to be for testing - which apparently didn't catch everything.
[+] [-] Izkata|2 years ago|reply
My Blackberry Android phone is the same, I remember having to train myself not to hit power when I first got it because my previous phone wasn't like this.
[+] [-] MishaalRahman|2 years ago|reply
1) Due to the general lag between Google pushing a new release out to AOSP and OEMs pushing out updates, many devices have only recently been updated to Android 12. OEMs with outsize market share pushing out updates will result in many more people - who probably don't know this gesture was added or how it's activated - accidentally triggering it.
2) Some OEMs may have flipped the switch in an OTA to turn the gesture from off by default to on by default.
[+] [-] moojd|2 years ago|reply
https://gizmodo.com/iphones-false-911-calls-bonnaroo-android...
[+] [-] Semaphor|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] at_a_remove|2 years ago|reply
Now the iPhone's fake 911 call issue comes from its "auto car crash detection," which gets set off when people ski and, well, fall.
[+] [-] microtherion|2 years ago|reply
But if I remember correctly, the emergency call feature is something that is explicitly explained during the iOS/watchOS initial setup and/or upgrade procedure, at which point you can also elect to opt out, so at the very least, it's less of a surprise.
[+] [-] sn_master|2 years ago|reply
It absolutely was a problem for me and I disabled it. I attach the phone to my car vent with an adapter and it slipped and when trying to adjust it called 911 twice while I was driving (couldn't pick up the first time).
How come such a critical shortcut be so unknown is a mystery to me. I can't imagine anyone ever used it intentionally.
[+] [-] hypercube33|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d3450|2 years ago|reply
Android is usually pretty good at providing quick menu toggles for things like this, or indicating to you where/when a new feature has been added, but this was entirely hidden in sub-menus without me even realising. Unfortunate for the emergency dispatcher who had to listen to me frantically trying to understand what was happening with a broken phone screen.
I understand why this is an auto on feature for safety, but the lack of highlighting is really sub-par for the average user
[+] [-] xethos|2 years ago|reply
For context in case it was missed in TFA: While Samsung has a settings page for the feature, some users report the page doesn't actually have an "off" switch. Some builds for the Galaxy S23 and S22 let you control things, like if emergency SOS should play a warning sound, but you can't actually turn off the power button shortcut.
I don't blame you for not realising, considering you were never notified, and likely not even given the option to turn it off.
[+] [-] forky40|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adhesive_wombat|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taeric|2 years ago|reply
This was actually a large part of why I decided to buy a "flip" phone. With the screen closed, far fewer ways for me to have it activate while in my pocket.
[+] [-] Stratoscope|2 years ago|reply
> Texting with 22911 (SMS/MMS)
> Chicago 911, we received a call from you, do you have a Police, Fire or medical emergency?
> 9-1-1 has ended this conversation. 9-1-1 will not receive additional replies to this message. Call 9-1-1 to report an emergency.
I didn't see any of this until I took the phone out of my pocket.
I don't think it was from pressing the power button five times. With the case I have on my S22 Ultra, it takes a fairly hard press. And with where I keep the phone in my pocket, it doesn't seem that it would have gotten pressed at all, much less five times. But maybe that was it after all.
Is there another way an Android phone can do an unexpected 911 call?
[+] [-] markmark|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] predictabl3|2 years ago|reply
Because Google doesn't understand the word "lock" in "lockscreen"
There's like a decade-old issue marked "won't fix", despite constant user complaints and non-Google manufacturers having a clear option for locking Quick Settings on the lock screen.
Just another papercut making me consider dropping the Pixel line and just buying something even cheaper than can run LineageOS. It's amazing the lengths Google goes to enact death by a million papercuts on their flagship OS.
[+] [-] tgsovlerkhgsel|2 years ago|reply
This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Allocation_Code
[+] [-] LesZedCB|2 years ago|reply
the first time I cancelled the call, they called back and I explained.
second time, I stayed on the line to explain, which they appreciated. this time I turned the feature off.
third time was on a new phone and hadn't disabled it...
I don't remember if iphone switch the volume button side between generations, but on Android it's not consistent model to model..
it's a great idea for sure, but it's easy to do accidentally if you confuse volume for power.
[+] [-] martinpw|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] janalsncm|2 years ago|reply
Imagine if pharmaceuticals worked the same way. Instead of requiring medical studies on small groups, any drug could just be released on the public. Who cares if it causes birth defects. Move fast and break things! Buyer beware. Once in a while you’d get a check for $20 in the mail after you find out you have some horrible incurable neurodegenerative disease.
This is quickly moving from annoyance to public nuisance to public safety emergency. Self-driving vehicle companies can push updates over the air that not only brick the vehicles, but endanger 3rd parties who never signed 95 page Terms and Conditions contracts. Obviously not all software needs to be subject to this regulation but some of it does.
[+] [-] kneebonian|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] delfinom|2 years ago|reply
Eh, in this case this is just a gap for the FCC who already regulates 911 and it's implementation that needs patching. The FCC can be absolutely brutal in their enforcement execution. It's just they move slow as rocks.
> Self-driving vehicle companies can push updates over the air that not only brick the vehicles, but endanger 3rd parties who never signed 95 page Terms and Conditions contracts.
The NHTSA regulates vehicles via the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards). They are responsible for things as requiring e-braking, backup cameras and more. It's really their job and ability to crack down on self-driving vehicles and OTA in vehicles. They could very easily do it but the automakers of course throw tantrums and start getting their local senators to interfere.
Now, why doesn't anything happen? Well, it's part regulatory capture, part rotting federal government due to extremists.
[+] [-] the_only_law|2 years ago|reply
I went out and got the cheapest android phone I could find just temporarily. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was clear that whatever crummy little SoC they put in there was hardly capable of running the OS version they struck on it.
Often, the phone would lock up, but in a strange way. Only the rendering would freeze. There were several times an app would appear to completely lock up, and I would try to press the lock button of even restart it, but whatever app froze was still stuck on the screen, at least until it finally got going again and I realized that whatever frustrating tapping I was doing hit the emergency call button before the Lock Screen had even rendered. I had to explain to the operator about 5-6 times before I went and got a new phone.
[+] [-] eugenekolo|2 years ago|reply
I managed to make it to the menu described to turn off this feature. And gave up on fixing that device.
Really don't know what went on in the product owners minds to release this... There's plenty of people with finicky power buttons, children pressing things, general people pressing things hoping to make something work, accidental button presses, and so on...
[+] [-] maverick2007|2 years ago|reply
I was at Busch Gardens in VA, riding their new coaster (Pantheon [1] for those curious). It's a fast, launched coaster and I guess the way I was sitting with the restraints hit the power button of my pixel 5 times and toggled the emergency call feature. I felt my smart watch vibrating with the ongoing call as we went up the top hat spike of the ride. Thankfully I was able to stop the call from my wrist before it connected. But that was the last time I didn't turn my phone off or put it in a locker before I got on a ride.
[1] https://rcdb.com/16812.htm
[+] [-] LanceH|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taeric|2 years ago|reply
Granted, this all became way worse with touch. I wouldn't be surprised if larger phones make it worse, too. I have loved my flip's ability to "close" and render this a non-issue. Wallet style cases also helped, back when I had a non foldable phone.
[+] [-] HKH2|2 years ago|reply