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Google Helped Cause the Mysterious Increase In 911 Calls SF Asked It To Solve (bbc.com)
theodp writes: Android users have long complained publicly that it's way too easy to accidentally dial 911. So it's pretty astonishing that it took a team of Google Researchers and San Francisco Department of Emergency Management government employees to figure out that butt-dialing was increasing the number of 911 calls. The Google 9-1-1 Team presented its results in How Googlers helped San Francisco Use Data Science to Understand a Surge in 911 Calls, a Google-sponsored presentation at the Code for America Summit, and in San Francisco's 9-1-1 Call Volume Increase, an accompanying 26-page paper.
I have the same problem as you. The emergency call button is too easy to activate and the power menu can be activated without unlocking the screen. Both are design faults. Some third party Android editions remedy the second problem, but not the first.
My ancient Nokia brick phones had a screen lock. They also had a bypass for emergency calls. But instead of automatically dialing 911/999, it brought you to the dialer screen. The only number you could enter was 911/999. Anything else would prompt for the unlock code.
I've seen people argue that dialing emergency services should be as simple as possible, that a catastrophic injury might make navigating menus and dialers difficult. For every scenario like that, how many times have emergency call centers run out of free operators, with a butt dialer or two being enough to push them to capacity?
I was out in the woods one day and sitting on a hill for a while. I thought I heard some noise from my pocket, so I checked my phone. I had a voicemail from 911 saying something to the effect of "This is the third time you've called 911! Please check your damn phone!"
I checked my phone and it had two outgoing calls to 911 in the list. I was pretty horrified.
They obviously were familiar with butt dials. However, what if I was injured and unable to speak? Hopefully they could tell the difference. At least I didn't get a helicopter flying over me or something.
The ease at which the phones can dial 911 is absolutely stupid... it's absolutely Google's fault. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to make it harder to do accidentally, but still easy enough to do if you're injured/impaired.
My biggest gripe with using an Android phone is that the phone unlocks during calls even when they placed/answered via a hands-free Bluetooth device. Answering a call via Bluetooth with your phone in your pocket unlocks it and starts feeding the UI random screen clicks. People have been filing bugs to the Android team over this issue since 2011 and it has never been addressed, and the newer bugs keep getting pushed to lower and lower priority. Its safe to say at this point that Android butt dialing is now a feature and is included by design.
If you can't put your phone in your front pocket where you won't ever butt dial and instead put it in your back pocket, news flash, you're already wearing a "murse." Its just in the form of ball-crushing tight pants with no space.
Free the dangly appendages, wear more comfortable pants!