We all want to make fun of the use of our smartphones as real phones – that is, who will actually call people in 2021? But if you are in an emergency, your first instinct is to pick up the phone and dial 911. If your smartphone can’t do that, it can be a big problem. Unfortunately, some Android users who have installed Microsoft teams may find their devices that way — it is important not to be able to make a single call.
A bug is stopping some Android phones from being able to call 911
Take it from Reddit user KitchenPicture5849, he should make 911 call to their grandmother. They used their Pixel 3 to call emergency services, but after ringing once, their phone “immediately got stuck.” With an emergency phone call running in the background the user can do nothing but click on their applications. Even if their pixel tells them that their location has been sent to emergency services, there is actually no way to confirm that fact by talking to a sender on the phone.
Fortunately, KitchenPicture was able to call for help using their grandmother’s landline, but it was not the solution; Any handset can reliably dial 911 under any circumstances.
Google has generally resolved this issue by responding to the original Reddit text after u / PixelCommunity confirmed a bug in pixel devices running Android 10 and later. The reason? Having Microsoft Teams Apps without signing in.
This is a bizarre trigger for a bizarre bug, and we are not yet sure why not signing up for teams disables the 911 call in particular. But whatever the reason, the error is real and it is serious. To address that, Google says it will soon release a solution for the Teams app on Microsoft Android; Google will release its own solution in the big Android update on January 4th.
How to stop this bug from preventing a 911 call on Android
Until then, however, there are steps you can take now to prevent this error from affecting you. First, if you have Microsoft Groups on your Android device, make sure you are logged in. If you open the app and are greeted by the login page, immediately remove the app and reinstall it. While official debugging is still necessary, Google says that uninstalling and reinstalling the app should fix the bug for now. Until then, be prepared for emergencies and stay safe there.
