We’ve seen Google evolve its Phone app over the past few years, adding clever features that are meant to tackle spam, unknown callers, long wait times when on hold, and so much more. For the most part, these tools are vital for the people that use them, which means they need to work properly 100% of the time.
Apparently, that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment, with reports that Google’s Take a Message feature is leaking audio. This news comes from 9to5Google, with some users sharing their experiences with the feature on Reddit. While the Take a Message feature is supported to record audio from the sender, it isn’t supposed to record audio from the receiver.
Something isn’t quite right
Now, what’s concerning about this is that you won’t know it’s happening unless you’re being told by the caller. You can keep an eye out on your phone, but there’s a pretty good chance you won’t even notice the Take a Message feature activating. While it’s unclear what’s causing this at the moment, it does appear to occur on older Pixel models like the Pixel 4a.
However, there has also been a report where this problem has occurred on the Pixel 10. And while this can be alarming, Google is aware of the issue and working on it. The silver lining here is that you can just turn off the feature entirely to avoid this problem. It’s not the ideal scenario for most people, but at least it will prevent audio from leaking to your caller while the Take a Message feature is active.
If you’ve never experimented with this feature before, it is available on the Pixel 4 and newer models. However, you will need to be in a supported region in order to gain access, which for now includes the US, Australia, UK, and Ireland. If you want to check whether this feature has been enabled, you’ll need to jump into the Pixel Phone app Settings menu.
There should be an option to enable and disable Take a Message if it is available. Since there’s no timetable here as to when this problem will be resolved, it’s probably a pretty good idea to keep your eyes peeled for any future news. Or as stated before, you can just be cautious and turn it off completely for the time being.