Android users have been warned to update their software to make sure they can call 911 in an emergency. The warning comes from the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), which says that many Android devices do not have the necessary features to make 911 calls. The NENA report says that as of September 2017, only about 60 percent of Android devices had the ability to make 911 calls. This is down from about 80 percent in 2016. The report says that this is a problem because many people rely on their phones to call for help in an emergency. The NENA report recommends that Android users update their software to ensure they can call 911 in an emergency. The update is available through Google Play and the App Store. ..
Last week ended with a scary bug that prevented users from calling 911 on their Android phone under certain circumstances if they have Microsoft Teams installed. Thankfully, Microsoft released an update for Teams that fixes this serious 911 bug.
The bug was first discovered by a Reddit user who was attempting to call emergency services for their grandmother. Google responded to the issue, saying, “Based on our investigation we have been able to reproduce the issue under a limited set of circumstances.”
Google rounded out its response by saying, “We advise users to keep an eye out for an update to the Microsoft Teams app and ensure it is applied as soon as available.”
Thankfully, that update is available now, so if you have Microsoft Teams installed on your Android smartphone, you’ll want to update it to the latest version immediately, as the ability to call 911 is critical, especially if you don’t have access to a landline.
Microsoft did a great job of rolling out the fix quickly. This is incredibly important because an issue like this is more than just an annoyance, as people’s lives could be at risk if someone can’t get ahold of emergency services quickly when they need them.
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