Tell HN: Google fi bug directs calls to strangers

1 pointandbberger1 comment

Encountered a bizarre bug last night, thought HN might have some interesting things to say about it: my friend called me on my google fi number, it rang on my phone and computer, but when I tried to answer someone else picked up! A real bonafide person. I know because my friend told me immediately afterwards.

Can anyone well-versed on VoIP comment on the technical feasibility of this?

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I may be a bit late on this one, but here goes :)

It's technically feasible.. but in my opinion, if it's happened with you then it's very likely to be happening with others.

There's no one single way to setup telco infrastructure, so it would be educated-guesswork in the case of Google Fi.

Worth noting VoIP is real time, it either works or it doesnt. And if a call is being setup between two parties and it's otherwise a good quality call, then monitoring is unlikely to mark it as a bad call.

Personally, I would recommend logging this as a bug (if Google Fi allow it?) as I suspect it will be near impossible for them to spot these scenarios, even with clever monitoring tools.

I'll be keeping an eye on the news for follow ups on this one!

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