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Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

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Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#71

Post by Pasorrijer »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #57
edent wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. From memory we had a specific SIM which was registered with 999. We dialled up, gave a password of the day, and asked them what info they could see about the call. They could see IMSI, IMEI, Cell Location and other things like that. (A couple of decade ago now - my memory might be inaccurate.)

Not a lot has changed. You call the regional center (the 911, or in our case, 112 responders), you negotiate a timeframe for your tests (so that there's enough operators there), you tell them the phone number (and other data) that will be used for testing (because the responders get the approximate location of the caller, and might still send someone to check after a call, even if the voice doesn't get through), and…

This was also a huge issue with BlackBerry 10. We kept getting bugs about 999 being dialed because of the way the screen recognition was... The phone would wake up in your pocket, dial 999 and you'd pocket dial EMS because it was allowed to be dialed from above the lock screen no matter what.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#72

Post by ilyt »

edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

Wait, shouldn't be something like FCC certifying emission levels not some random mobile network operator ? Or at least company run by them as to not have to repeat test same thing over and over again ?

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#73

Post by paganel »

Aachen wrote: post #11

Let's just spell it out instead of this clickbait title: Dialing the local emergency number (112, 000, and 911 were reported, but presumably also others) sometimes doesn't work, just gives a click instead of dialing. Google blames third party apps. Users report similar issues since Pixel 4 that were reported to Google but haven't been resolved since release. Not like "911 doesn't ring" is much longer of a title than…

> Dialing the local emergency number (...) sometimes doesn't work,

It very well sounds like a horror movie.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#74

Post by rkangel »

jeroenhd wrote: post #50
n0tth3dro1ds wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Teams is abusing private APIs or acting in other nefarious ways, this is 1000% a problem with Android itself. It shouldn’t be possible to break emergency service call operation through normal usage (or even naive usage) of the public APIs on the system. To blame Teams here is completely backwards.

I believe this is the result of two problems. One is the fact Teams registers phone service providers over and over again, the other is that Android didn't pick the right phone account for a while. The Teams issue will cause generic connectivity issues because Teams says "I can call this number!" but then can't; the Android issue is an emergency issue because the Teams app shouldn't indicate the ability to call emerg…

I understand this, but there is still an architecture issue here:

It should not be possible for installed applications (even malicious ones) to prevent calling the emergency services using the cellular network

In the worst case it might try some other options first, but whatever is registered or set up the phone should use the SIM information to call on the network. The network operators have a load of regulation to meet (and special prioritisation of emergency call channels etc.) so why do the phone makers not?

Teams is a cause of this problem, but we're talking about it because it's a widely installed app. What other niche VoIP or similar applications are also causing this problem? The whole value we are sold of the restrictive "app" model is it is meant to protect the phone user from things the app might do.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#75

Post by curiousgal »

simfree wrote: post #3
vpt wrote: post #2

Here is the associated Google Pixel subreddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/z3knqv/action_...

I don't think this is newsworthy at this point. My Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 both are unreliable when trying to call 911, calling with an over the top app or dialing the PSAP's number directly are the only workarounds. Google doesn't give a fuck about this issue. I have filed repeated support cases over the past year with Google about this when using T-Mobile or Verizon.

Pixel 6 is the last Google phone I bought, after owning every single Pixel up until that point.

A company who fucks up this badly is not worth my money.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#76

Post by willbudd »

jeroenhd wrote: post #50
n0tth3dro1ds wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Teams is abusing private APIs or acting in other nefarious ways, this is 1000% a problem with Android itself. It shouldn’t be possible to break emergency service call operation through normal usage (or even naive usage) of the public APIs on the system. To blame Teams here is completely backwards.

I believe this is the result of two problems. One is the fact Teams registers phone service providers over and over again, the other is that Android didn't pick the right phone account for a while. The Teams issue will cause generic connectivity issues because Teams says "I can call this number!" but then can't; the Android issue is an emergency issue because the Teams app shouldn't indicate the ability to call emerg…

Allowing one app to register more than one phone service provider smells like an Android API bug. Allowing an unlimited number definitely is a bug. Allowing the corresponding integer to overflow and... well... do we really need to argue this point?

A phone OS should never have to rely on good app behavior to not collapse like a house of cards. Much less one made by a corporation with a 71% worldwide market share.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#77

Post by fourthark »

onion2k wrote: post #53
Aachen wrote: post #11

Let's just spell it out instead of this clickbait title: Dialing the local emergency number (112, 000, and 911 were reported, but presumably also others) sometimes doesn't work, just gives a click instead of dialing. Google blames third party apps. Users report similar issues since Pixel 4 that were reported to Google but haven't been resolved since release. Not like "911 doesn't ring" is much longer of a title than…

Google blames third party apps. I'm not going to suggest third parties can't screw with a phone and make it effectively unusable, but why isn't emergency calling a separate code path in the dialler app and OS that just ignores everything that third parties have done? It should be impossible to change the behaviour of that small bit of the phone. Don't fire any OS level events, don't call any callbacks, ignore any reg…

This link posted by crooked-v seems to explain why it was like that, and how it has been fixed.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-fixes-nightma...

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#78

Post by thih9 »

edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

Sounds like you’re unhappy that people didn’t want the network to be responsible for checking against bugs. But would the opposite actually be fine? What about people who buy their phones from the manufacturers?

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#79

Post by vbezhenar »

dm319 wrote: post #48

I'm all over the place with pocket computing devices and remain confused. I once has an iphone. Beautifully crafted, both inside and out, but so frustratingly locked down that I was desperate to leave it behind. They have progressively opened up the platform, but it always lags behind (I remember I couldn't access the cloud storage from anything other than a mac). My favourite devices have been more alternative. E90…

I’m in a similar position. I used iPhone for years but after they started to remove important apps from AppStore I decided to move to pixel. UX is terrible and unpolished. Hardware is just bad. But I can sideload and that’s more important.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#80

Post by mitchdoogle »

progval wrote: post #66
edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

> customers couldn't stand the delays associated with testing. They'd see a new firmware had been released and complained Why do customers care about the firmware version?

Because they want the latest features of the OS on their phone
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