{"id":257026,"date":"2026-01-29T04:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T04:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:16:09","slug":"take-a-message-disabled-on-some-pixels-to-protect-your-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257026\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a Message disabled on some Pixels to protect your privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Take<\/p>\n

Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Take a Message<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

Google is disabling Take a Message on some Pixel phones after reports that it could expose background audio during missed calls.
\nThe company says the issue affects a very small subset of Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 devices under rare conditions.
\nManual and automatic Call Screen still work, and callers can continue using standard carrier voicemail instead.<\/p>\n

Most recent Pixel features<\/a> have been welcome additions, but one meant to handle missed calls has instead caused a bit of a privacy snafu. Over the past few months, some users reported that callers could hear background audio during missed calls, rather than being cleanly prompted to leave a message. Google has now confirmed the issue and says it\u2019s disabling Take a Message<\/a> on the affected devices.<\/p>\n

In a post on its support forums<\/a>, Siri Tejaswini, a Google community manager, said the company investigated the reports and confirmed they affect \u201ca very small subset\u201d of Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 devices under \u201cvery specific and rare circumstances.\u201d Out of caution, Google is disabling Take a Message and its next-generation Call Screen features on those phones.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

As we learned last week<\/a>, the problem appears to be tied specifically to Take a Message rather than carrier voicemail. In rare cases, the feature didn\u2019t fully isolate the call, allowing callers to hear audio from the phone owner\u2019s surroundings instead of being cleanly separated from the device. That has obvious privacy implications if your caller can hear your side of the line without you having picked up.<\/p>\n

Take a Message launched with the Pixel 10 series as a way to surface short summaries of missed calls directly in the Phone app. The feature uses Google\u2019s Phone app to capture a short message, generate a real-time transcript, and surface it directly in your call history. It was designed to reduce reliance on traditional voicemail, but the recent reports suggest it doesn\u2019t always work as intended.<\/p>\n

Google says affected users won\u2019t lose call screening entirely. Manual and automatic Call Screen options will continue to work, and callers can still be sent to standard carrier voicemail. The company hasn\u2019t shared how many devices are impacted, or when Take a Message could return to Pixel 4 and 5 phones. We\u2019ll be keeping an eye out for any developments.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Maring \/ Android Authority Take a Message TL;DR Google is disabling Take a Message on some Pixel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3451,342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-257026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-google-pixel","9":"tag-mobile","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}