A serious problem is occurring on Google Pixel devices, and that is that calls fail when they are most necessary. Specifically, when an emergency occurs. Although it has been going on for a while, it is a very important failure due to the seriousness of not being able to call at critical moments.
The phones of the Google firm have an automatic call function in emergencies and the inconvenience also appears there, leaving the advantage in question. It has happened before and Google has fixed it as fast as they can, however, now this problem is coming up again with more force , and it has not been fixed yet.
There are problems that, although important, can be lived with, such as those that we have already announced in these devices, such as excessive battery consumption that remains unresolved, even after updating to the latest version of the operating system. But the emergency calls are important and could happen more than we imagine.
Trouble calling in emergency situations
Last November, there were reports of the Google Pixel 3 running Android 11 with Verizon being unable to make an emergency call in the US. Google investigated and indicated that the problem was due to having Microsoft Teams installed, even without the session started, something curious because not all those affected had this app.
They further discovered that the issue potentially affected many other people running Android 10 and above. They released an update to Microsoft Teams to fix this issue.
In July 2022 , a similar problem appeared again on the new Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro models . Google quickly recognized this and released an update early last month to fix the problem.
Not much time has passed since then, there are new reports about the same problem to make an emergency call. Now it would also affect the Google Pixel 6a. It is not the first time that this problem has occurred in Australia, although there is recent data on it. It is still under investigation.
Although it is obviously not a failure that occurs every day, there are also no emergency calls every day, and these are precisely the ones where we need it most.
Complaints pile up.
Several users have expressed their dissatisfaction at the impossibility of making calls in an emergency , when it is difficult to pick up the phone or even dial a phone number to ask for help.
This user complains about not being able to make an emergency call on his mobile in any case:
When I call emergency services it takes me to a dialing screen that shows my location and doesn’t seem to actually dial. This was a bona fide emergency and I had to switch to my wife’s iPhone. This is very worrying.
Another laments that he does not even score:
I’ve seen previous reports, but my phone’s symptoms don’t match the freeze/bootloop, it just didn’t dial (no dial tones or anything) despite waiting over a minute, so I stopped the call and used my phone. wife. I am in Australia. I tried to dial 000.
There are many countries and situations where the ruling has been repeated:
The exact same thing happened to me less than an hour ago. I found a girl beaten on the sidewalk, after a while of trying to convince her to see a paramedic, she fell unconscious. I immediately tried to call 000. It showed my location, phone number, I think some other details and said dial or call, I can’t quite remember.
After a minute or two of that, I managed to get a stranger to call. This was shocking. I’ve had a terrible experience with my Pixel so far, but this is the last straw. Those minutes could literally cost someone their life. I’m fuming.
We hope it will be resolved as soon as possible
It seems that there is still a long way to go to solve this serious problem of Google with these brand devices. We are hoping that from Google as soon as possible because the malfunction of this service could cost someone their life, as some people have already said. But above all because the brand leaves its users “thrown” when they need it most.
One piece of good news is that Google recently indicated that Android 14 will debut with support for satellite connectivity like Apple‘s Emergency SOS via the satellite tool, but without the need for new hardware. Although this, for now, does not solve the problems that are occurring in some Pixels to make emergency calls, it could be interesting to combat them in the future.