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Comment by kramerger | Hacker News Reader

Wait, Google is A/B testing the emergency dial?

What the hell is wrong with these people? We are humans, not a data science project.

<Emergency Calling app's team> "We've improved the usage of our app by 75% and average session time increased from 3s to 15s!"

No, Google is not A/B testing the emergency dialer. What the previous commenter is referring to is a change in Android 12 where, by default, long-pressing the power button no longer brings up the power menu but rather the default Assistant app.

Not realizing that the way to bring up the power menu now is to either access it through Quick Settings or press the power + volume up buttons, the previous commenter's friend started pressing the power button multiple times. (Not blaming that friend, just summarizing what happened.)

Who thought the power button change is a good idea? Turning off your phone might be rare, but if it's needed, you shouldn't remember some weird gestures. Do people really want to talk to the stupid robot that fails to perform basic tasks, or is this a way to improve metrics?

Neither the GP nor the article suggest there's an A/B test, you've made it up.

Starting in Android 12 - hitting your power button 3 times in a row brings up the camera, five times in a row calls 911. Its not A/B testing thats for everyone.

Man, I hope the medical field doesn't adopt your viewpoint.

Akshually, medical field is exactly like that, with experiments clearly indicated and closely monitored. And I really hope it does stay like that.

Medical experiments without the explicit informed consent of the human subjects involved are considered a big ol' human rights violation.

Source: I've had human subjects training

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