For a small number of users, the Pixel Phone app’s “Take a Message” feature inadvertently sent audio to the caller. Google has now confirmed the issue and is disabling it on the Pixel 4 and 5 series.
Introduced last year, Take a Message activates when you decline or miss a call. It asks the caller to leave a message while providing you with a real-time transcript.
A handful of users with older devices in recent months said that Take a Message activated and proceeded to send the caller background audio as if they had answered. As such, the person calling could hear what was happening around your phone as they are leaving their message. Besides the system microphone indicator, there was no indication that this was happening.
Google today acknowledged the issue for a “very small subset of Pixel 4 and 5 devices under very specific and rare circumstances.”
When we tested last week with a Pixel 4a, we could not replicate this problem. This was never a widespread issue.
In response, Google is “disabling Take a Message and next-gen Call Screen features” from the Pixel 4 and 5, which no longer receive Android updates. Users can still use “manual and automatic Call Screening or their carrier voicemail instead.”
User privacy is our top priority. We’ve investigated this issue, which we’ve confirmed affects a very small subset of Pixel 4 and 5 devices under very specific and rare circumstances. Out of an abundance of caution, we’re disabling Take a Message and next-gen Call Screen features from these devices. These customers will still be able to use manual and automatic Call Screening or their carrier voicemail instead.
Updating…
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