Google Phone App Rotation Confuses Users Again

Google’s Phone app is flipping into landscape during calls, and a growing number of users are convinced something is broken. In reality, the app now honors system-wide auto-rotate, but inconsistent rollouts and missing settings are making a straightforward change feel like a bug.

What’s actually changing in Google’s Phone app rotation

Historically, the Google Phone app only supported portrait mode for both the dialer and in-call screen. Even if auto-rotate was enabled, the interface stayed upright. That behavior appears to be shifting: recent updates allow the app to rotate into landscape when the phone is turned, matching the device’s system setting.

The catch is that the change doesn’t seem to be landing cleanly for everyone. Some people see the landscape layout one week, then lose it after a routine update. Others never saw it until recently. Reports across Reddit’s r/GooglePixel and r/Android, along with threads on the official Google Support Community, describe the same whiplash: the UI turns sideways during calls, then mysteriously stops doing so after an update.

Why Google Phone’s new rotation behavior feels like a bug

Because the Phone app ignored rotation for so long, many users built muscle memory around a portrait-only call screen. When the UI suddenly rotates—especially while lifting the phone to an ear—it looks like something is malfunctioning. In most cases, the sensors are simply doing their job. If auto-rotate is on, the accelerometer and gyroscope tell Android to adjust the layout. The Phone app is now following that directive instead of opting out.

Android also offers rotation suggestions (the little corner button that appears when the device is turned with auto-rotate off). But that subtle system aid doesn’t help when auto-rotate is enabled globally and an app decides to participate—or not—based on its own support for landscape UI.

The missing portrait-lock toggle that could fix rotation

According to testers in Google’s beta program and posts from app explorers who monitor feature flags, Google added a Portrait UI lock in pre-release versions of the Phone app. That toggle would let users keep calls fixed in portrait, ignoring the system’s auto-rotate. The problem: the setting hasn’t widely surfaced in the stable release, and the landscape layout itself appears to be controlled by server-side flags that can change without a full app update.

This staged approach—common across Google apps—can result in two people on the same version seeing different behavior. It’s great for A/B testing, less great for clarity. Without consistent release notes or visible controls, people naturally assume the Phone app is glitching out.

Who actually benefits from landscape calls on Android devices

Landscape support isn’t inherently bad; it just needs an off switch. Drivers using horizontal car mounts, tablet and foldable owners, and anyone placing video calls on sprawling screens all benefit from a wider layout. A landscape in-call UI can spread out controls, enlarge contact photos, and reduce accidental taps around the mute, speaker, and keypad buttons—small but meaningful quality-of-life tweaks.

The tension is on phones used one-handed. When you’re moving, rotating the device can be unintentional. What looks like “random” flipping is usually the auto-rotate sensor reacting to slight angles while grabbing or pocketing the phone mid-call.

Quick fixes you can use today to stop unwanted rotation

• Turn off auto-rotate in Quick Settings. This stops the Phone app from switching to landscape on its own and keeps everything locked in portrait.
• Use rotation suggestions instead of full auto-rotate. With suggestions on, Android shows a small button to rotate only when you explicitly want it, minimizing accidental flips.
• Check for app updates and beta enrollment. Some users report that joining or leaving the beta influences whether the landscape UI and portrait lock appear. Results vary due to server-side rollouts.
• Avoid third-party rotation enforcers for the call screen. Utilities that force orientation can conflict with proximity sensors and in-call dimming, which help prevent accidental touches when the phone is at your ear.

What Google should do next to clarify Phone app rotation

The cleanest solution is straightforward: ship a stable build with both the landscape UI and the portrait lock toggle, and publish clear release notes in the Play Store. That would acknowledge different preferences across phones, foldables, and tablets while mitigating confusion for users who keep auto-rotate on by default.

Google’s own design guidance encourages predictable motion and user control. Applying that principle here—by making the rotation behavior explicit and optional—would reduce support tickets and cut down on the flood of “bug” reports. Until then, the simplest way to stop the sideways flip is still the oldest trick in the book: lock rotation system-wide and carry on.