Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
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Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#2I 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.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#3[deleted]
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#4This 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.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#5This 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.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#6I 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.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#7My worst pet peeve is seeing someone put a phone in their pocket with the screen still on. So the first thing I do on any phone is make sure that when I turn it off, it remains off, until a call or until I turn it back on.
This is common sense to me, but unfortunately most people use default settings.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#8This 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.
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#9As 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
Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls
#10I 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…
Wait, Google is A/B testing the emergency dial?
What the hell is wrong with these people? We are humans, not a data science project.