Pixel 911 Bug Still Haunts Pixel 10 – and It’s Beyond Unacceptable

A years-long emergency calling bug continues to haunt Google’s Pixel lineup – and it’s not just a minor inconvenience. It’s a potentially life-threatening flaw that persists even on the flagship Pixel 10, four generations after first being reported.

Reports have been surfacing once again from frustrated Pixel owners, revealing that the long-standing 911 calling issue, which dates back to the Pixel 6 era, has not been completely fixed. Some users are finding that in moments of real emergency, their phones simply refuse to connect to 911 – or take several agonizing minutes before a call finally goes through. Considering that every second can matter in a crisis, this is no small matter.

The problem appears deceptively simple but dangerously impactful: Pixel devices intermittently fail to establish a connection with emergency dispatchers. Even with full signal bars and carrier support, users have reported their phones hanging indefinitely on the dialing screen. In some cases, activating Wi-Fi calling seems to be the only workaround – a solution that’s hardly acceptable when lives are at stake.

According to multiple Reddit threads and support forum posts, users across several U.S. carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, continue to encounter this issue. Interestingly, reports suggest that the problem may have been patched for Canadian users, which only makes the American persistence of the bug more baffling. The fact that this is still happening years after its first appearance – despite Google’s frequent software updates and new Tensor chip iterations – raises serious questions about the company’s internal testing and emergency compliance standards.

This issue first emerged in late 2021 with the Pixel 6, powered by Google’s debut Tensor chip. That generation was already infamous for software instability, random freezes, and dropped network signals. While subsequent models like the Pixel 7, 8, and now 10 have improved in performance and AI sophistication, the ghost of this emergency call failure continues to lurk beneath the surface. Even Google’s most loyal fans are finding their patience stretched thin.

And to be fair, Google isn’t entirely alone in this. There have been scattered incidents involving iPhone and Samsung Galaxy users who faced similar 911 call disruptions. But the difference is persistence: for most brands, these were one-off glitches, quickly patched and forgotten. For the Pixel line, however, the problem seems stubbornly woven into its DNA – a recurring flaw that refuses to die.

What makes this so alarming is the fundamental nature of the failure. Smartphones have evolved into cameras, computers, and AI assistants, but at their core, they are still phones. The ability to make an emergency call is not a feature – it’s a necessity. When that reliability collapses, everything else becomes irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how intelligent your AI photo editor is or how bright your OLED screen shines if your device can’t reach help when it matters most.

Many Pixel owners, even long-time enthusiasts, are now publicly questioning their loyalty. As one self-described ‘Pixel girl’ lamented online: “I love the cameras, I love the features – but I can’t love a phone that might fail me when I need it most.” Her frustration echoes through the Pixel community, reflecting a deeper erosion of trust that’s hard to rebuild.

For Google, this is more than a technical embarrassment. It’s a reputational crisis that undercuts its message of innovation and user safety. Emergency reliability isn’t optional – it’s the baseline expectation. Four generations in, there’s no excuse for this flaw to linger. Until Google issues a definitive, verified fix, every Pixel user has reason to wonder whether their lifeline could fail at the worst possible time.

Let’s hope the next update brings more than camera improvements or AI tweaks – and finally restores confidence in the one function no phone can afford to get wrong.