Google Says Bug With Teams and Android Can Cause 911 Calls To Fail (msn.com) 44
JoeyRox writes: Last week, a Reddit user reported that they weren't able to call 911 using their Pixel 3 and later said they were working with Google support to figure out the issue. Yesterday, Google announced what was causing the issue in a reply to the post: an "unintended interaction between the Microsoft Teams app and the underlying Android operating system." In its comment, Google says that the bug happens when someone is using Android 10 or later and has Teams installed but isn't logged into the app. The company says that Microsoft will be releasing an update to Teams "soon" to prevent the issue and that there's an update to Android coming January 4th.
Why the fuck... (Score:5, Insightful)
Google said Microsoft teams is releasing an update? Why the fuck can an app do this in the first place. The idea an app can drop calls alone seems like too much power but even much worse that emergency services would still fall under a general level of authority.
Everyone involved should have their ass pounded for this one in the same way a carrier would get treated for dropping emergency calls.
But nothing will happen, similar issues will repeat, and potential cyber attack surfaces expand exponentially...
Re:Why the fuck... (Score:5, Insightful)
I came here to say exactly this. What the actual fuck? I mean, on Windows I'm used to installing a 600MB Solitaire game and suddenly I can't print because the shit OS allowed the shit software to hook somewhere into the goddamn kernel where it has no business.
But this sort of thing shouldn't happen on an allegedly secure OS, where I can't even access the data that apps are storing on my device without rooting it because everything is sandboxed.
Probably what's going on here is Teams is requesting (and getting) Manage Phone Calls permission so that it can, I dunno, coordinate phone calls with calendars or something. Yet another argument for Android having much finer-grained permission controls (e.g. allow an app to see my call records, but do not allow it to fuck with my calls.)
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People make calls through Teams, TextForFree, Google Voice, etc
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this is the first time I've ever heard someone call Android secure, or even "allegedly secure"
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Come now, I'm sure Google calls it that someplace... Besides, "secure" these days seems to mainly refer to protecting the DRM and ad/snitchware from the user.
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Why would you essentially download a movie to play a game that can be coded in 20 MB or less? Now you know, nothing good comes from that much bloat.
They are sort-of doing this: The side-load application feature, has gone from a system-wide setting to a per-app setting. The problem is, every time they give you more power, they want to ensure that you can't disable their gMail or Photo Gallery or Calendar applications as well.
580MB of add's and paided add ons (Score:2)
580MB of add's and paided add ons
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Why would you essentially download a movie to play a game that can be coded in 20 MB or less? Now you know, nothing good comes from that much bloat.
Well, that's a whole separate rant. WIndows seems to be a world where it's acceptable for a printer or GPU driver, or a stupid game that a teenager could write in a single page of Python, to be a 700 MB download.
They are sort-of doing this: The side-load application feature, has gone from a system-wide setting to a per-app setting. The problem is, every time they give you more power, they want to ensure that you can't disable their gMail or Photo Gallery or Calendar applications as well.
Yep. As was ment
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That's it, Teams examines phone numbers when they are dialled and routes them through itself if they are part of the company's IP phone system and it is connected to that network. The idea is to save money on calls while also allowing users to call in from anywhere even if they are not on the company VPN.
In fact the fine grained controls you are asking for already exist. There is one permission to make and handle calls, another to manage call records, and another to access contacts, and another to send SMS.
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In fact the fine grained controls you are asking for already exist. There is one permission to make and handle calls, another to manage call records, and another to access contacts, and another to send SMS...
As a user, how do I individually disable some of these permissions for an app like Teams?
Settings -> Privacy -> Permissions Manager
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Alternate Dialers would need to have this ability. Otherwise all we Android people would have is the default dialer and the the alternative methods of dialing numbers in apps. That being said, Dialers need to be able to dial 911 REGARDLESS of call status; as in drop ALL other dial/phone operations.
And what Android user uses Teams and not any of the myriad of other options available. Probably some companies that are embedded deep in Corp Shiil / Gartner land.
Re: Why the fuck... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maybe the occasional Android user installed it to, you know, get some actual work done.
As a regular Teams user I can inform you that I only ever get any work done when Teams is turned off. People seem to think they can call/chat to you on minutiae just because there's a green status icon next to your name, an issue that's compounded when your company has staff in multiple time zones.
Powerful ad for iOS (Score:1)
Google said Microsoft teams is releasing an update? Why the fuck can an app do this in the first place.
Now you see why I would never in a billion years recommend an Android phone to a non-technical person.
My wife has to use use Teams for work, it's nice to know she's using a platform where it's not possible for an application bug to override the emergency call system.
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Not so smart (Score:2)
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If that was the case, then why is Google releasing an Android update to address this? And why would it only affect users on Android 10 or later?
What's more likely is that there is an issue in Android 10 and above, and Teams just happens to be the first app to have triggered it.
In any event, if Teams is able to watch keystrokes from another app, that says more about Android's security than anything. And even if Teams *is* passing something through incorrectly, it also says a lot about Android's internals, as
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In Opposite news (Score:2)
One of my friends Pixel 3s was crashing and dialing 911 itself the other day. It did it 3 times until we finally pulled the sim card because we got tired of telling 911 there wasn't an emergency. Traded it in for a Pixel 6 the next day. Wondering if it was all Teams fault??? I don't think they had Teams installed??..
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Lol, well it stopped calling anyways. I did just find this. https://www.reddit.com/r/Googl... [reddit.com] sounds like the same issue. Oh well, they phone is long gone now. We wern't sure what to do as we couldn't pull the battery and it kept turning itself on if we shut it down (likely the power button issue).
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Faraday cage, putting it in deep basement or selling it. Especially the latter if it's Android. Your punchline was that your friend replaced the Google Pixel with... another Google Pixel, lol
Re: In Opposite news (Score:2)
This is another example of an android failure (Score:1)
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Several years ago we had one, and it was actually pretty decent by the time it was killed off...
It was the mobile OS people loved to hate - Windows Phone. Some of the hatred was for good reasons - MSFT loved to add cool features, only to kill them off 6-12 months later after people got used to using them. Other features were released in pre-beta form when they were way too buggy, and just pissed people off. But overall, it was a pretty solid OS which in some ways was ahead of where Android is today (spea
Android is the problem here (Score:2)
Android got infected with Teams and couldn't dial 911? That is an Android problem, clearly 911 needs to be handled in a different way than other calling - especially considering phones are able to dial 911 without service and without a SIM.
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*without a service ocntract (didn't mean without service, you obviously need a cell signal to make a call)
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To be fair to Android, I think Teams has similar access on iOS. I’ve noticed that my work Teams meetings show up under “recent calls” in the stock iOS phone app, and I’ve wondered why the heck that’s the case.
I would be curious to hear an explanation from someone at Microsoft regarding why Teams legitimately needs this level of access to the OS. I do know I’ll hear plenty of conspiracy theories from people who don’t work for Microsoft. ;-)
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Pretty much any app that does VOIP shows up in the recent calls list on iOS. Whatsapp, Teams, other VOIP apps. This isn't any conspiracy about MS forcing its way into iOS internals, it's an entirely standard way of doing things.
As to the why, iOS presents a standard experience when you receive an incoming call, so you don't need to switch to the app before you can answer it. Half the time I don't even realise that I'm getting a call via Whatsapp instead of my actual direct line. So if I missed a call, I don
Walled Garden (Score:2)
There was no advertisement available for 911 (Score:1)
how else is Microsoft going to cash in on their Teams App?
Did you think that Microsoft's snooping on it's users was only limited to Windows 10/11?
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Aw come on, they were just trying to be helpful.
"It looks like you're having an emergency. Here are some suggestions."
OS (Score:5, Insightful)
I despise convicted monopolist Microsoft as much as the next person, but the very point of the OS is to compartmentalize apps while ensuring reasonable resource allocation, especially toward services critical to the user. Also, Google is the guardian of what can get into their app store. So, Google pointing to a MS app, and indicating the need for that Microsoft app to change, is deeply troubling with respect to their (Google's) lack of competency, integrity or both
Just 911? (Score:2)
Is it just the specific 3 digits '911'? Or does this also occur for other emergency services around the world with different numbers? The FA (and the Reddit thread) is unclear.
No there isn't... (Score:2)
Backup (Score:2)
Everybody should own a dumb phone that can only make phone calls, just in case they actually need to make a phone call, rather than watch Instagram.