U.S. owners of newer Google Pixel phones are reporting a surprisingly annoying problem with some lifeline calls, government emergency calling services and concierge help reaching new phones running Android 10. Users are reporting calls that won’t go through, error messages and even surprise restarts just from dialing for help, in incidents across different carriers and multiple generations of Pixel.
Failed 911 Calls On Recent Pixels: What Could Be The Cause
The complaints, which have been posted on Reddit and compiled by observers of the industry, indicate that emergency calls for some Google phones have not worked in the United States: Pixel 10 Pro XL, 9 Pro XL, and 8. One Pixel 9 Pro owner with T-Mobile described a hiccup and rebooting when calling 911. A user with Cricket Wireless reported the same bug affecting the 9 Pro XL, as did an AT&T customer using a Pixel 10 Pro XL. A Pixel 8 owner said the call only worked after Wi-Fi calling was switched on.
The number of reports of the problem is small given that millions of Pixel devices are currently in use, and the scope is uncertain. Yet, every time a 911 call falls through, the stakes are high. Several carriers are at play in the anecdotes, so it may be more about device software or modem firmware or how emergency calls are handled across networks than a single operator outage.
Carriers And Potential Technical Triggers
Modern phones are more complicated than they appear at first glance when it comes to making emergency calls. On LTE and 5G, 911 is normally run over IMS/VoLTE that have their own special emergency profile. If either the registration to IMS or the emergency “bearer” fails, then when it is enabled, a UE shall fall back to other networks available for that UE or Wi-Fi calling. A crash or reboot when the action fails doesn’t typically indicate a dialer UI bug, but some sort of baseband or radio interface layer issue.
A straight carrier-side routing issue seems less likely given the breadth of reported failures, which included AT&T, T-Mobile and an AT&T MVNO. Rather, behaviors such as device reboots and the sudden current after toggling Wi-Fi calling suggest interaction among Pixel firmware, the modem stack, and network emergency response protocol. Unconfirmed, but it just might depend on regional network settings or recent carrier profile updates.
When emergency calling goes awry on Pixel phones
There is precedent. One well-publicized example there involved a software bug in a third-party app that led to some Android phones not properly dialing 911, causing a fix at the platform level thereafter. Pixel models have also suffered through more sporadic modem stability problems related to certain radio bands and the act of moving into a 5G zone, like the potential for such issues to occur when you’re on calls that demand high priority or nonstandard routing — such as E911 calls.
The stakes are high. There are approximately 240 million calls to 911 in the U.S. each year, according to the National Emergency Number Association, and nearly 80% of those are from cell phones. The FCC mandates that carriers route all E911 calls regardless of account status, but bugs down at the device-level can still scuttle the whole process before it ever reaches a carrier network.
What Pixel owners can do right now to stay safe
Until an official solution is forthcoming, there are some practical actions that users can take to help ensure that the experience is more reliable:
- Turn on Wi-Fi Calling in the phone’s network settings, if available, as at least one report suggests that this helped the 911 call go through.
- Update your phone to the latest software which includes carrier settings and modem firmware, then reboot again.
- Do not uninstall or disable core dialer apps/services, unless you want the phone to be unable to complete emergency calls.
- Verify that Emergency SOS settings and location permissions are switched on; they can help dispatchers even when calls take a wonky route.
Officials recommend against making nonemergency test calls to 911. If your local guidelines allow, call your public safety answering point’s nonemergency line to inquire about approved test protocols in your area.
What Google And Carriers Ought To Make Clear
Given the gravity of the situation, users are going to demand timely and open communication. A press release between Google and the affected carriers could clarify whether they can replicate the behavior, and to which configurations it occurs, and if a software patch or carrier profile update is coming. Even if the problem is rare, it would restore confidence to publish a clear route to mitigation.
Emergency calling is the single feature that has to work every time. As long as there is not a clear indication of the root cause, I seem to think it is prudent that we still treat the risk as “low,” have all our equipment up to date and Wi-Fi calling enabled, monitoring for guidance on those official channels is what seems right. If you encounter a failure, write down the carrier, location, signal strength and software version — information which can aid engineers in quickly pinpointing and repairing the issue.