Suffolk County Police said Monday that they have been warned about a glitch involving Android phones connecting to 911.
The department said the problem affects a small number of Android devices that have the Microsoft Teams app installed, but the user is not logged in. The connection issue, which is on the dialing end of the call not the receiving end, is caused by an unintended interaction between the app and the phone’s operating system.
When a user attempts to call 911, the phone will ring once, sound as if the line is busy or that the call is going unanswered. The call will not show up in outgoing call logs.
Google indicated a fix to the Android operating system would be released on Jan. 4.
Android users can follow the below steps to attempt to fix the issue:
- Check if the device is running Android 10 or above. Only users on Android 10 or later versions are potentially impacted.
- If Microsoft Teams is downloaded, check if you are signed in. Only those who have the app downloaded but not signed in are impacted.
- If you are signed in to Teams, stay signed and update the app to the latest version.
- If you are not signed in, uninstall and then reinstall the app, using the latest version of Teams.