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Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

arstechnica.com

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Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#21

Post by xethos »

danpalmer wrote: post #12

iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago. Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly co…

From TFA:

> The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a problem by some people, with one Reddit post calling it "dangerous." Since then, there has been a steady stream of posts warning people about it.

It objectively has been a problem, and was a known issue, with Reddit posts warning others. There just weren't enough Pixels to cause this latest tsunami. That year-and-a-half delay from Samsung rolling out Android 12 was meant to be for testing - which apparently didn't catch everything.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#22

Post by meepmorp »

tekla wrote: post #13
kramerger wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Man, I hope the medical field doesn't adopt your viewpoint.

Medical experiments without the explicit informed consent of the human subjects involved are considered a big ol' human rights violation.

Source: I've had human subjects training

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#23

Post by at_a_remove »

danpalmer wrote: post #12

iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago. Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly co…

Not that different. In 2018, there were a lot of fake 911 calls from iPhones, if you look around for it.

Now the iPhone's fake 911 call issue comes from its "auto car crash detection," which gets set off when people ski and, well, fall.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#24

Post by xethos »

d3450 wrote: post #9

As 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…

> but this was entirely hidden in sub-menus without me even realising

For context in case it was missed in TFA: While Samsung has a settings page for the feature, some users report the page doesn't actually have an "off" switch. Some builds for the Galaxy S23 and S22 let you control things, like if emergency SOS should play a warning sound, but you can't actually turn off the power button shortcut.

I don't blame you for not realising, considering you were never notified, and likely not even given the option to turn it off.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#25

Post by xatax »

sowbug wrote: post #11

Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc. I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.

> but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly

Maybe I'm not crazy. Twice in the past couple weeks, my phone has seemingly unlocked itself in my pocket and I suspected it was to do with moisture/sweat, but dismissed it as unlikely.

In the first instance, it emergency dialed. I had just hung up the phone and put it away, so I thought I hadn't secured it.

In the second instance, I hadn't touched my phone in several minutes when suddenly my podcadt was overlaid with a demo video from an executive at my company which had opened in Teams. I closed out of that and discovered an unsent text to my wife filled with gibberish and a dozen image attachments.

I have a swipe and fingerprint enabled. My best guess is the mosture is registering my leg through the pocket and swiping it unlocked in an infinite monkeys scenario. I switched to password only for my walks now and haven't had an issue since.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#26

Post by [deleted] »

taeric wrote: post #5

This 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.

[deleted]

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#27

Post by lm28469 »

xatax wrote: post #25
sowbug wrote: post #11

Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc. I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.

> but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly Maybe I'm not crazy. Twice in the past couple weeks, my phone has seemingly unlocked itself in my pocket and I suspected it was to do with moisture/sweat, but dismissed it as unlikely. In the first instance, it emergency dialed. I had just hung up the phone and put it away, so I thought I hadn't secured it. In the second…

Sometimes brushing against the fingerprint sensor (with the proper finger) is enough to unlock the phone. It might happen when you put your phone back in your pocket, then it's pure chaos

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#28

Post by Tyr42 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #17
INTPenis wrote: post #7

My 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.

I reflexively click the button to lock the phone before I put it in my pocket, but iOS has some impossible-to-disable shortcuts that work even when the screen is locked, such as activating the camera. Several times I've pulled my phone out to see that the camera is on. I've got no idea why this is possible with the phone "locked" but I've searched for a way to disable it and there doesn't seem to be one.

Android has double tap power to turn on camera (at least pixel does) and it's super handy for us. My wife might be holding my phone and want to take a picture of the kid and me, and this works without needing to type in the passcode or borrow my finger.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#29

Post by danpalmer »

xethos wrote: post #21
danpalmer wrote: post #12

iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago. Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly co…

From TFA: > The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a proble…

I did read this but it doesn't feel convincing. People complain on Reddit about anything, and have complained about triggering this on iOS, and yet we don't get ArsTechnica (or the BBC, or other major news organisations) covering it as a widespread problem. There are plenty of Pixels, I'd expect enough to cause coverage if this was a substantial issue.

Increasing the accessibility of emergency calls is always going to be a tradeoff, so I'm not surprised there are accidental calls. However it strikes me as being significantly exacerbated by something about the phones it's rolling out to.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#30

Post by eugenekolo »

I had this happen to me about a year ago when this first rolled out in the US on Pixel Devices. My phone's power button was broken and kept toggling (still is). So, one day after this update, it ended up calling 911 on me and I had to explain no there's no problem, just my phone is garbage and called automatically. Did it a few times after that as well where I would have to scramble to cancel it.

I managed to make it to the menu described to turn off this feature. And gave up on fixing that device.

Really don't know what went on in the product owners minds to release this... There's plenty of people with finicky power buttons, children pressing things, general people pressing things hoping to make something work, accidental button presses, and so on...

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