Google has confirmed the existence of a bug that stops unlogged in Microsoft Teams users from dialling 911.<\/b>
\nThe latest tech news Your sardonic source for consumer tech stories Human-centric AI news and analysis Driving the future of sustainable mobility No-nonsense stories about startup growth Inside money, markets, and Big Tech The hottest new jobs in tech Help build the bank of the future Coding for Public Service Small country, big ideas I\u2019m not gonna sit here and decry current technology, quite the opposite. To this very day, there\u2019s something magical about smartphones. I can use them to watch movies, make music, work\u2026 anything, really. Despite this, I \u2014 a caveman \u2014 still expect my pocket rectangle to do one basic thing: be a phone. And this means doing things like calling 911. Normally, this isn\u2019t an issue, but it could be now. If you\u2019re on Android. And have Microsoft Teams installed. And aren\u2019t logged into the app. Yes, friends, last week a Reddit user shared an issue with contacting the American emergency services. Specifically, they used a Pixel 3 running Android 11 on Verizon. Without going into too much detail ( you can read the full saga here), the user dialled 911 following a call with their mother. After one ring, their phone stuck and they were unable to \u201cdo anything other than click through apps with an emergency phone call running in the background.\u201d Now, Google has confirmed the existence of the bug and responded to this issue. In its statement ( posted on Reddit, of course), the company pointed to the two aforementioned reasons for this issue: Google stated that it is working with Microsoft to fix the issue. But if you\u2019re worried about it now? Make sure you \u201cuninstall and reinstall\u201d Microsoft Teams. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s very reassuring for everyone to hear. Honestly? This is a shitshow. As I mentioned at the start of the piece, modern smartphones are magical. The reason for this is they\u2019re also mind-bendingly complex. It\u2019s almost impossible for any single person to understand all the intricacies of current mobile operating systems. Saying this, making calls \u2014 especially to emergency services \u2014 must be foundational. In other words, this fuck up shouldn\u2019t be possible. But it is. And it happened. The more I think about it, the more fitting this failure is. Tech has become so advanced, and our devices so integral to how we live, that we\u2019re forgetting what hardware was specifically made for. So welcome to the modern world, a place where your phone can fail at being a phone.<\/p>\n