It shouldn't be allowed to be sold and Google should be facing fines for each day the functionality is missing, assuming it is a software problem.
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This is a life or death matter and should be treated as such.
Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
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Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#52My experience has been Pixel phones suck for calls in general. I know of 3 people with Pixel 3As that intermittently can’t receive calls. Often it takes 2-3 calls to these people in order to get 1 to go through. Setting the phones to prefer 4G has so far fixed the problem most reliably but the whole calling stack on pixel phones needs some work IMO.
I have a pixel 6 pro and this has been my experience since they day I got it. I even had it replaced and still have to reset the cellular modem several times per week because I get the no service `!`. Starting to believe it is a T-Mobile service issue in my area. Previously had a pixel 2 on Verizon and never had a problem. Planning to leave T-Mobile in the near future.
Pixel 6 on AT&T, I don't think I've ever had this experience.
Phone calls sound much better than my previous carrier (some cheap mvno) and things generally Just Work.
Only complaint is that it's missing some things I hadn't realized were not stock Android, such as per-app volume control. I just might switch back to LG after this one dies, though the battery seems to be holding up much better so who knows.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#53They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.
If it's possible the power button is getting bumped repeatedly in your pocket. You could search your Android settings, and make sure "Emergency SOS" is turned off.
It’s also possible that there’s a hardware failure that is making the power button erroneously report button presses, leading to the Emergency SOS. This happened to me on a Pixel 3, which resulted in repeated calls to 911 with no user input.
* Can’t power it off for the night, because the flaky power button turns it back on.
* Can’t pull the SIM card, because emergency calls don’t require a SIM card to connect.
* Can’t consistently use the “slide to cancel” option, as the phone was also trying to initialize the camera at the same time. (IIRC, 3 button presses for the camera, 5 button presses for SOS. The flaky power button managed to trigger SOS while the camera was still initializing the GUI, so the camera GUI took focus.)
* Can’t access the settings, because the flaky power button either turns the phone off, opens the camera, or sends an SOS faster than I could search the settings.
This all started at about 10 PM. So, instead of going to sleep, I needed to spend the next two hours baby-sitting my phone as it mostly was repeatedly rebooting, with occasional calls to 911, until the battery finally died.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#54Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#55I tried to use my old pixel 3 recently as a hotspot. Blows my mind how it’s been broken for a while (according to online) and won’t ever be fixed since there’s no more software support. I ended up buying a used iPhone SE instead.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#56They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.
Had this issue awhile ago, out of nowhere it just started dialing 911 while in my pocket. Turns out some setting was re-enabled after a recent update. Went to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures > Double tap to turn on screen > Disable and I think that finally fixed it. This is on a Samsung A71 5G.
Yes, I ran into the same problem and this "fixed" it. The issue doesn't come from the feature itself but from the fact that the lower end model uses "Virtual proximity sensing" instead of a real proximity sensor which is often faulty. It sucks that Samsung chooses to cut costs in these places.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being able to call 911 is an essential part of a phone. To the point that Apple (and I'm assuming Google) both allow calling emergency services while the phone is locked.
In lots of countries it's also possible to call emergency numbers without a sim card.
When you take the SIM out of an iPhone (or turn off your eSIM), it displays “SOS” instead of a carrier ID.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#58It shouldn't be allowed to be sold and Google should be facing fines for each day the functionality is missing, assuming it is a software problem.
Why the caveat? Isn't the Pixel hardware designed and sold by Google as well?
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#59It shouldn't be allowed to be sold and Google should be facing fines for each day the functionality is missing, assuming it is a software problem.
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How's that boot taste?
Contacting emergency services is the one thing a phone must not fail at.
We mandated legacy telecos to maintain switching offices with a weeks worth of battery power so landlines could work in a natural disaster.
Google is a trillion dollar company if you want to get their attention you have to effect them on the order of millions of dollars.
Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency
#60I will say I have had plenty of similar issues across my iPhone devices. For a variety of reasons these phones fail to make calls. Drop calls or can’t dial 911. I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech.
I worked on dialer for pixel and and am deeply familiar with these problems. Voice call tech is easily one of those mostly worthlessly convoluted spaces in mobile. That being said while I was there we put a huge priority on emergency calling — however the exec overseeing the space often complained about how hard dialer was and bemoaned all the required work because it never helped her promotions.