Police in the UK are seeing a “record number” of fake calls to 999, the UK’s emergency services number, and the culprit is apparently Android. As the BBC reports, Android 12 has added an easy-to-access feature for emergency services: just press the power button five times and your phone will call emergency services for you. That’s apparently pretty easy to do accidentally when there’s a phone in your pocket, or you have a clunky power button, resulting in a flurry of completely silent, accidental calls to 911.
The National Council of Chiefs of Police tweeted earlier this month: “Nationally, all emergency services have a record 999 calls right now. There are a few reasons for that, but one that we think will have a significant impact is an update to Android smartphones.” The BBC report says a department “received 169 silent 999 calls between 00:00 and 19:00 BST on Sunday alone”. In response to these most recent complaints, Google says it is working on a solution with Android OEMs.
The funny thing is that Android 12 – and this simple emergency calling feature – came out a year and a half ago. Thanks to unique (uniquely bad) way Android is rolling out, the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national issue. Google’s Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else’s can take months or years to get new versions of Android because it’s up to your device’s manufacturer to provide new, custom Android builds. for every device they’ve ever released. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a problem by some people, with a Reddit post calling it “dangerous.” Since then there has been a steady stream of posts warning people about it.
Samsung shows how to turn off emergency SOS, but Samsung phones apparently don’t have the “On/Off” switch at the top.
Until a patch comes out, Google’s current recommendation is to disable the feature. That is easier said than done. Many Android manufacturers like to mix up settings, making online tutorials difficult, so it’s best to just search for “Emergency SOS” in the system settings. On Samsung and Pixel phones, there should be a main “Security & Emergency” page in the system settings that takes you to the “emergency SOS” settings. While Samsung has a settings page for the feature, some users report that the page doesn’t really have an “off” switch. Some builds for the Galaxy S23 and S22 let you control things, like if emergency SOS should sound an alert sound, but you can’t disable the power button shortcut.
Like anything with Android, Google told the BBC it’s up to manufacturers to decide how and when the emergency SOS feature works, even though Google is the one who developed it. The company says, “To help these manufacturers prevent accidental emergency calls on their devices, Android provides them with additional guidance and resources. We expect device manufacturers to roll out updates to their users that address this issue soon. Users who continue to experience this issue should turn off Emergency SOS in the next few days.” When Android patches can take months or years to reach the masses, Google’s claim that it will be fixed in “a few days” sounds… optimistic?
This isn’t the first time that easily accessible emergency calling features have put a strain on local call centers. The Apple Watch launched with an automatic emergency call feature when the watch detected too much G-force, and in the US resulted in 911 being “flooded” with fake emergency calls from people skiing or on roller coasters. When Google released a similar feature on the Pixel Watch earlier this year, the company mentioned how much work it put into stopping accidental calls, but it doesn’t sound like the Android phone feature has gotten quite as much attention. That’s still better than crashing every time you call 911, at least.
