NENA: Accidental Calls to 911 from Android Phones Still a Problem

Public safety answering points continued to have a 30% increase in call volume in June, apparently tied to interface updates to some Android phones (see 2306210030), the National Emergency Number Association said. “NENA staff has been working with Google and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) regarding a recent and large uptick in accidental calls caused by changes to default behavior in some devices for the Emergency SOS feature in Android,” the group said last week. Android operating system software from both Google and the OEMs have updates to address the issue, NENA said: “For multiple major OEMs, the updates have already been pushed to the public and installed on many devices. It will take some time for updates to reach a critical mass of handsets, and for users to install them, for the issue to be completely addressed. This may take weeks to months. NENA advises all Android users to update their OS to the latest version.”