After last year’s Microsoft Teams fiasco, this is the last thing we needed
Google just launched the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and while right now getting your hands on one might feel like a life-or-death imperative, if you ever actually find yourself in legitimately dire straights, will your Pixel have your back? A disturbing number of users have been sharing reports of the problems they’ve faced struggling to dial and connect to emergency numbers from their Pixel phones.
A spate of Pixel owners on Reddit, as well as Google’s own support forums, share their harrowing tales of being unable to connect to emergency services. Calling 911 (or 000 — whatever the local number is) from a Pixel phone gets to the actual call screen, but the call never actually connects. Given how emergency calling is the one feature that you never want to see fail under any circumstances, these are pretty serious claims.
We just got through a big scandal last year, where Microsoft’s Teams app ended up breaking access to emergency service on Android phones. But that was supposedly resolved, and while we can’t help but think about it now, it’s entirely possible a fully separate glitch is behind this current behavior.
The reports we’ve seen involve the Pixel 6a and the Pixel 6, dating back over the last few months. We reached out to one of the affected users, and the issue persists as we go to publication — although they haven’t yet updated to the latest October 2022 security patch.
While this clearly isn’t impacting everyone with a Pixel, even if just a small subset of users can’t get emergency help when they need it, it’s still an issue that needs attention as soon as possible. Having access to emergency services is essential for any device that’s connected to a cell tower. It’s a mandatory requirement by the FCC, and justifiably so — after all, a 911 call can mean life or death.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
