Android glitch could block 911 calls from going through. Here's how to fix it

Alberto Villarreal, Creative Lead for Mobile and Laptops, holds up a Pixel 4 phone while interviewed at Google in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

by: Alix Martichoux, Nexstar Media Wire

Posted: Dec 12, 2021 / 08:00 PM AST

Updated: Dec 12, 2021 / 06:53 PM AST

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(NEXSTAR) — Google confirmed it’s working on a fix for a scary glitch that might block some Android users from calling 911 in an emergency.

The problem was first reported on Reddit by a Pixel user who was trying to get help for his grandmother who appeared to be suffering from a stroke.

“My phone got stuck immediately after one ring and I was unable to do anything other than click through apps with an emergency phone call running in the background,” the Redditor wrote. “This is all while the phone informed me that it had sent my location to emergency services. Sadly I couldn’t tell the person on the other end what apartment I was in, or what the actual emergency was as I was unable to speak to a human.”

Because the phone rings, you may not realize the problem is on your end, reports Mashable. It just looks like the line is busy and no one is answering. But when you check your call logs, the outgoing calls don’t show up.

After investigating the reported issue, Google confirmed it was able to replicate the problem. The company said the issue is isolated to “a small number of devices with the Microsoft Teams app installed when the user is not logged in.”

“We determined that the issue was being caused by unintended interaction between the Microsoft Teams app and the underlying Android operating system,” the company said on Reddit. “Because this issue impacts emergency calling, both Google and Microsoft are heavily prioritizing the issue, and we expect a Microsoft Teams app update to be rolled out soon.”

Google said it would be releasing a fix to the Android operating system on Jan. 4. An update to the Teams app was released to patch the problem in the meantime.

The company suggests Android users do the following to ensure they are not affected:

Check if your device is running Android 10 or above. Only users on Android 10 or later versions are potentially impacted.
If you have Microsoft Teams downloaded, check to see if you are signed in. Only those who have the app downloaded but not signed in are impacted.
If you are signed in to Teams, stay signed and update the app to the latest version.
If you are not signed in, uninstall and then reinstall the app, updating to the latest version of Teams.