Police forces within the UK are seeing a “document quantity” of false calls to 999, the UK’s emergency companies quantity, and the perpetrator is apparently Android. As the BBC experiences, Android 12 added an easy-access function for emergency companies: simply press the facility button 5 instances, and your cellphone will dial emergency companies for you. That’s apparently fairly simple to do by accident when a cellphone is sitting in your pocket, or when you have a wonky energy button, leading to a surge of completely silent unintentional calls to emergency dispatch.
The National Police Chiefs Council tweeted earlier this month that “Nationally, all emergency companies are presently experiencing document excessive 999 call volumes. There’s a couple of causes for this, however one we expect is having a big affect is an replace to Android smartphones.” The BBC report says one division “obtained 169 silent 999 calls between 00:00 and 19:00 BST on Sunday alone.” In response to those most up-to-date complaints, Google says it is engaged on a repair with Android OEMs.
The humorous factor is, Android 12—and this simple emergency call function—got here out a yr and a half in the past. Thanks to the distinctive (uniquely unhealthy) manner that Android is rolled out, the function is solely now hitting sufficient individuals to develop into a nationwide drawback. Google’s Pixel gadgets get new Android updates instantly, however everybody else can take months or years to get new variations of Android as a result of it is as much as your system producer to make new, bespoke Android builds for each system they’ve ever launched. When this landed on Pixel gadgets in 2021, it was instantly flagged as an issue by some individuals, with one Reddit submit calling it “harmful.” Since then, there was a gradual stream of posts warning individuals about it.
Samsung reveals off the right way to disable emergency SOS, however Samsung telephones apparently do not have the “On/Off” swap on the prime.
Until a patch comes out, Google’s present advice is to show the function off. That’s simpler mentioned than carried out. Many Android producers wish to scramble the settings, making on-line tutorials troublesome, so your greatest wager is likely to be to only search the system settings for “Emergency SOS.” On Samsung and Pixel telephones, there must be a top-level “Safety & Emergency” web page within the system settings that may get you to the “emergency SOS” settings. While Samsung has a settings web page for the function, some customers report the web page would not even have an “off” swap. Some builds for the Galaxy S23 and S22 allow you to management issues, like if emergency SOS ought to play a warning sound, however you possibly can’t truly flip off the facility button shortcut.
Like the whole lot with Android, Google advised the BBC it is as much as producers to determine how and when the emergency SOS function works, though Google is the one which developed it. The firm says: “To assist these producers stop unintentional emergency calls on their gadgets, Android is offering them with further steerage and assets. We anticipate system producers will roll out updates to their customers that handle this subject shortly. Users that proceed to expertise this subject ought to swap Emergency SOS off for the following couple of days.” When Android patches can take months or years to achieve the lots, Google’s declare that this can be mounted in “a few days” sounds… optimistic?
This is not the primary time easy-access emergency call options have burdened native call facilities. The Apple Watch launched with a function for automated emergency calls when the watch detected too many G-forces, and within the US, that resulted in 911 being “inundated” with false misery calls from individuals snowboarding or on curler coasters. When Google shipped an identical function on the Pixel Watch earlier this yr, the corporate talked up how a lot work it put into stopping unintentional calls, but it surely would not sound just like the Android cellphone function obtained the identical quantity of scrutiny. That’s nonetheless higher than crashing each time you call 911, at the least.