Emergency SOS Chaos, Android Phones Flood UK Switchboards

• Android Emergency SOS is causing accidental silent emergency calls in the UK.
• Record-high call volumes stress emergency services.
• Manufacturers are to release updates, and users are advised to disable Emergency SOS temporarily.

Police forces within the United Kingdom have raised issues approximately a brand new feature found on certain Android phones, causing an inflow of accidental silent emergency calls to switchboards. This characteristic, referred to as Emergency SOS, is activated whilst the side button on the phone is pressed repeatedly.

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According to police chiefs, this could be a contributing thing to the surge within the wide variety of emergency calls being acquired. Google, the developer of the broadly used Android cellphone software, has stated the difficulty and expects telephone manufacturers to launch updates to deal with the problem. The National Police Chiefs Council said that the recent software replacement introduced an SOS emergency characteristic, allowing devices to robotically call emergency services when the electricity button is pressed five times or extra. The excessive number of accidental emergency calls has put stress on emergency services nationally, resulting in file-high name volumes.

Okay, so this issue has caught the attention of even more law enforcement agencies around the world.

According to the BBC, police chiefs in the UK and the European Emergency Number Association have warned about the rise of false emergency calls originating from Android phones. https://t.co/JH12hy1zM1

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 22, 2023

One police force, Devon and Cornwall Police, revealed that it took them 20 mins to deal with each silent call. They counseled people who mistakenly dialed 999 to remain on the line and inform the operator of the mistake. The problem isn’t limited to the UK, as the European Emergency Number Association additionally mentioned a surge in fake emergency calls originating from Android gadgets. While the feature became introduced in Android 12 in 2021, many customers experienced specific troubles after updating to Android 13 closing yr. Manufacturers’ websites provide guidance on how to disable the feature. A spokesperson from Google stated that the obligation lies with the manufacturers who select to encompass Emergency SOS on their gadgets to control its functionality.

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Google is supplying extra steerage and sources to assist manufacturers save you unintended emergency calls. Producers are expected to release updates to deal with the difficulty directly. In the interim, customers experiencing this hassle are cautioned to disable Emergency SOS for a transient length.

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