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.
Someone could put all of these reports together along with the paper trail of unresolved complaints to Google through discovery and likely end up with a great class action case or even a criminal negligence case.
911 is one of those things that absolutely must work and most phones will allow you through using any available network if you are out of range of your primary carrier.
The fact that this is unreliable on any mobile phone is completely unacceptable.
My colleague once told me that the reason telecom providers took so long with Android software updates was because they had to verify that the phone meets regulatory requirements after the update. One of these requirements was being able to dial 112 (Europe's 911) very thoroughly. There was a legally prescribed process (by BNetzA, IIRC) for doing that in Germany. After a quick Google search, it seems like there is something like that mandated by the FCC in the US.
I wonder how the Pixel 4 passed it. Not just in the US, but in many countries.
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_compi...), across multiple Pixel models, is insane. There’s something seriously wrong here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
> I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech.
Whilst this may be true for normal voice, almost universally emergency calling is the highest network priority[0], knocking other voice and data sessions off another carriers tower if required.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I remember from my days building SIP clients that a lot of carriers support 933, which is exactly what you're asking about. You can try googling a bit to see if your carrier supports it.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
[+] [-] exabrial|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] radicaldreamer|2 years ago|reply
911 is one of those things that absolutely must work and most phones will allow you through using any available network if you are out of range of your primary carrier.
The fact that this is unreliable on any mobile phone is completely unacceptable.
[+] [-] TerrifiedMouse|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] clnq|2 years ago|reply
I wonder how the Pixel 4 passed it. Not just in the US, but in many countries.
[+] [-] freitzkriesler2|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bufio|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ouid|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nneonneo|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shawnz|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mips_r4300i|2 years ago|reply
I was manually entering the number on the dial pad, and the call would never initiate.
Finally, I created a dummy contact with the number and then it finally worked.
I now have a phone that isn't a phone.
[+] [-] lopkeny12ko|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] tsunamifury|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] nneonneo|2 years ago|reply
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|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TheHappyOddish|2 years ago|reply
Whilst this may be true for normal voice, almost universally emergency calling is the highest network priority[0], knocking other voice and data sessions off another carriers tower if required.
0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number#Eme...
[+] [-] Kwpolska|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rabbits_2002|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fluidcruft|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yolovoe|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] milosmns|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] aners_xyz|2 years ago|reply
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
[+] [-] naranha|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RicoElectrico|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IshKebab|2 years ago|reply
They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.
[+] [-] yardstick|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hot_gril|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] milosmns|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mostthingsweb|2 years ago|reply
Edit: hitbox not hotbox...
[+] [-] lern_too_spel|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] turminal|2 years ago|reply
I know this part is supposed to be fixed, but it's insane that this was part of the problem.
[+] [-] milosmns|2 years ago|reply
I'm also not surprised to read that Teams was to blame, because Skype had the same functionality back in the days.
[+] [-] Kwpolska|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] subjectsigma|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0cf8612b2e1e|2 years ago|reply
I hate how Apple infantilizes the user, but at least they have vision of making a product. Not a collection of promotion producing ideas.
[+] [-] d3w4s9|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syntaxing|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diego_sandoval|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davewasthere|2 years ago|reply
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|2 years ago|reply
> 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.
[+] [-] tenken|2 years ago|reply
The keyboard was spamming gibberish, eg NN nZzz1457_+-5hhhsvb .... etc
It took me a while to figure out why the phone appeared possessed...
[+] [-] johndhi|2 years ago|reply
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
[+] [-] basisword|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] surfingdino|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] milosmns|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] kwhitefoot|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thesis|2 years ago|reply
But I feel like it should be a crime to ignore a known issue like this.
[+] [-] lionkor|2 years ago|reply
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|2 years ago|reply
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.