Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 owners vexed by a laggy or immediately unresponsive speakerphone toggle in the Google Phone app won’t find relief with the company. After weeks of complaints and reproducible examples, the firm closed the issue without applying a patch to the official Android Issue Tracker, effectively indicating no fix is forthcoming.
The judgment hits awkwardly for devices marketed on reliable calling facilities. Complaints appear to suggest an app-side regression rather than a hardware problem, and many users point out that the problem emerges after the Google Phone app got a recent interface makeover. Reverting to an old build frequently rectifies the behavior, which appears to suggest the bug resides in the app’s UI layer rather than the audio stack.
What Pixel 9 and 10 users are experiencing in calls
Owners on various threads of the Android Issue Tracker and user forums detail pressing the in-call speakerphone toggle only to notice a holdup of one or two seconds before it shifts, or perhaps it will not switch at all. Some input binds do not come through.
This implies that during a phone interaction call, you can drop the phone about to thread the audio from the adhering phone, which may be specifically agitating while in hands-free mode. These reports all link up: the lag is usually the same as the new Google Phone app’s more recent interface; it occurs whenever you’re on the phone with someone else and does not affect the other on-screen phone interaction bind already too commonly. Given the fact that downgrading to a previous build corrects the matter, this proof links this issue to UI interaction or animation synchronization rather than a more foundational modem or DSP issue.
Why Google says a fix isn’t coming for this speaker bug
Google’s Issue Tracker entry lists a final resolution that says the bug won’t be fixed. Without a technical rationale provided, this classification can mean either a lack of internal reproducibility, a conclusion that the behavior is acceptable after all, or a decision to prioritize other workstreams. This does no good to device owners who depend on speakerphone for commutes, work calls, or accessibility purposes. For as frequently as the Phone app is updated, this “won’t fix” resolution means one shouldn’t expect a patch on this specific issue in a future release.
Workarounds that actually help until Google fixes it
Until Google course-corrects their resolution, there are a few workarounds that still function to a reasonable degree:
- Use the call notification: for many users, the speakerphone control in the pulldown call notification continues to respond swiftly.
- Revert the app: in most cases, with the most recent versions of the Google Phone app, rolling back to the factory version avoids the failure. To do this, visit the app’s Play Store page and uninstall updates for the current Google Phone app; many have reported that the factory version of the app works normally. Then, disable the Phone app’s auto-updates to avoid the issue returning.
- Alternatively, try a different dialer: Android supports third-party dialers, and configuring one as the default can circumvent the entire Google Phone UI. This may include call screening or animated voicemail.
- Use hardware or assistant controls: in many cases, the hardware and assistant controls, such as headset buttons or voice, are less finicky than the on-screen button during the call.
What this means for Pixel owners relying on speakerphone
Telephony is a baseline function, and even a small tap delay can feel like a big failure when you urgently need hands-free audio. The optics are tougher because Pixels lean heavily on software polish as a differentiator. An outright regression in the full system jacket, followed by a won’t fix, undermines that promise—especially when said jacket covers recent flagships like the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro.
That framing also revives a good old question for Android users: Do sleek, iterative UI changes make it easier to have faith even when they are essential in frustrating new ways? The friction points have appeared before—earlier fingerprint or camera viewfinder stutters come to mind. They are usually smoothed over. They are sometimes fixed. But they almost always leave scars on both the UI and UX departments.
The road ahead for affected Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 owners
Also, despite the Issue Tracker showing “won’t fix,” mere mass feedback can actually shift guidelines here. Star the thread on the Issue Tracker, report reproducible stutter cases through official support channels, and be sure to list exact versions and models when encountering the hiccup to [temporarily] elevate the priority inside the company. Third-party tracking players have indeed consolidated reports for easier identification.
Otherwise, the most reliable thing to do is pragmatic: use the toggle in the notifications or revert the Google Phone app. Sometimes, Google will refactor the UI in a future release without mentioning this in patch notes, so the situation will resolve itself gloriously. Until then, consider the loudspeaker functionality on your Pixel 9 or Pixel 10 to be quirky. Stock your turnaround canister properly.