Pixel phones appear to be unable to call 911. Considering such serious implications, how is it that you would think Google would at least address the issue once and for all? But that hasn’t been the case, with Pixel 10 users even complaining about the issue as recently as September. And now, reports are again flooding in from those Pixel users failing to access emergency services.
Over the past 24 hours, a few Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 users have reported that they are unable to make emergency calls on Reddit (2). The problem appears to impact large US networks, as well as AT&T.
One Pixel 8 user reports it took him 10 minutes to call for help because the phone would not make a connection without wifi calling turned on. And that’s with all the mobile network coverage in such a good area.
There wasn’t even a network issue, as he was able to call 911 from another person’s phone without a hitch. Canadian carrier Bell sent an emergency message Thursday afternoon to tell customers that Pixel 6-10 owners might have trouble reaching 911 (via iPhone in Canada).
The issue has since been resolved, though US-based carriers have not received a notice involving the same activity. With the potential lifesaving nature of that real-world problem, you’d think (if they knew) it’s something they would have done.
If this were a brief outage, that’s one thing; the main issue is how often outages occur — and only on Pixel phones. And that’s a problem.
In the last couple of years, there have been a handful of reports from Pixel users who couldn’t reach emergency services due to a bug. There have also been various reports that iPhone- or Samsung-wielding folks are experiencing similar issues, and they have a much larger user base.
At this juncture, Google really needs to make an urgent priority of addressing this and work hand-in-hand with the carriers to squash this once and for all. No smartphone should fail to connect calls to emergency services, period.
