Bug Pixel phones with Teams app blocks calls to US emergency services

Google Pixel users who have installed the Microsoft Teams app but are not signed in may not be able to reach the US emergency number in some cases. Google confirms this after an experience of a user. Google is working on a solution.

Reddit user KitchenPicture5849 wrote on the Google Pixel subreddit of how he apparently saw his grandmother having a stroke. He then tried to call 911 from his Pixel 3 phone, but was unsuccessful.

“My device hung after the line rang once. I could only browse apps while the call went through in the background,” it said. “My phone said my location was being forwarded to emergency services, but I couldn’t hear anyone and tell anyone what was going on.”

KitchenPicture5849 tried to reproduce the bug some time later and succeeded. “I called the emergency services for five minutes, but I got no answer. My outgoing call to the emergency services was also missing from my call list,” said the user.

Google responded ten days later. The American company suspects that the problem occurs on “a small number of devices” that have the Microsoft Teams app installed on their phone and where the users are not logged in to the Microsoft Teams service. It is not clear whether this bug affects only Pixel devices or also Android smartphones from other manufacturers. It is also not known whether the bug also occurs in other countries.

Google believes the problem is caused by an “unintended interaction” between the Teams app and the Android operating system. “Because this bug affects emergency call execution, the issue is a priority for both us and Microsoft,” the statement said. “We recommend that Android users install future app updates as soon as possible. An update will be released in the Android ecosystem on January 4 to fix this bug.”

Google also comes with workarounds. All users who have installed the Microsoft Teams app and are running the Android 10 operating system, or a newer version, must sign in to the Teams app to work around the bug. Removing the Microsoft Teams app, downloading it again from the Play Store and then installing it could also temporarily solve the problem. Google also recommends waiting for a new update from Microsoft Teams that should fix the problem.

Google Pixel 3 smartphone