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Comment by naranha | Hacker News Reader

They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.

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Samsung makes some of the stupidest devices I've ever owned. Back when I had Samsung phones, they did all sorts of things while in my pocket. I experienced multiple butt-dials, music randomly playing, etc. Fortunately, mine never dialed 911. But I could have lived without those moments where death metal started blasting from my pocket because I leaned the wrong way. And let's not get me started on their TVs. Maybe it's not so bad now that their phones support fingerprint scanning, but I wouldn't put it past them to screw that up, too. I sincerely believe that most people who continue to own Samsung devices simply don't know better. Such flimsy bloated crap for products that are supposed to "compete" with Apple, Microsoft, and The Google.

Had this issue awhile ago, out of nowhere it just started dialing 911 while in my pocket. Turns out some setting was re-enabled after a recent update. Went to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures > Double tap to turn on screen > Disable and I think that finally fixed it. This is on a Samsung A71 5G.

Thanks, I disabled it! I'm on the A52. I use the double tap feature often enough, but I guess I can live with the lack of convenience, thanks ;)

Yes, I ran into the same problem and this "fixed" it. The issue doesn't come from the feature itself but from the fact that the lower end model uses "Virtual proximity sensing" instead of a real proximity sensor which is often faulty. It sucks that Samsung chooses to cut costs in these places.

If it's possible the power button is getting bumped repeatedly in your pocket. You could search your Android settings, and make sure "Emergency SOS" is turned off.

I don't see a way to turn that off. I could sort of do it using the option to change the emergency number.

It’s also possible that there’s a hardware failure that is making the power button erroneously report button presses, leading to the Emergency SOS. This happened to me on a Pixel 3, which resulted in repeated calls to 911 with no user input.

* Can’t power it off for the night, because the flaky power button turns it back on.

* Can’t pull the SIM card, because emergency calls don’t require a SIM card to connect.

* Can’t consistently use the “slide to cancel” option, as the phone was also trying to initialize the camera at the same time. (IIRC, 3 button presses for the camera, 5 button presses for SOS. The flaky power button managed to trigger SOS while the camera was still initializing the GUI, so the camera GUI took focus.)

* Can’t access the settings, because the flaky power button either turns the phone off, opens the camera, or sends an SOS faster than I could search the settings.

This all started at about 10 PM. So, instead of going to sleep, I needed to spend the next two hours baby-sitting my phone as it mostly was repeatedly rebooting, with occasional calls to 911, until the battery finally died.

That would be the point where I take a hammer to the phone.

Believe me, if it hadn’t been for 2FA tokens that I needed to get off of it, I would have been dropping cinderblocks on it to get it to stop.

Aegis Authenticator has been a lifesaver for me: https://getaegis.app/

As in my other comment, this likely comes from the fact that lower end phones use "virtual proximity sensing" instead of a real proximity sensor, and they have a lot of issues when the phone is in a pocket. You need to either disable the double tab feature or upgrade to a "real" flagship like S23.

Do explain why! Is there a shortcut on the lock screen that you can't turn off or how?

Two or my four smartphones have been Samsungs and, while I could call 112 on purpose, I don't know what might cause pocket dialing. Your comment about this being a feature rather than a bug on Pixels is funny though =)

Yes, it's possible to dial 911 from a locked phone. I assume that's a legal requirement; on its face it's pretty reasonable.

I never used to lock my phone at all, but starting with the Pixel 3a I've been forced to do it by the fact that the phone interprets rubbing against my leg through my pocket as a stream of commands. I wish manufacturers would go back to the non-crazy screens they used to make. Anyway, since locking the phone doesn't disable the ability to call 911, this is a constant risk, though I don't believe I've made an accidental call yet. (Or maybe I would have, if my phones weren't Pixels!)

I have mangled a text note I was keeping on my phone beyond recovery when I once put my phone in my pocket without manually locking it first.

No, I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement in the EU. I now keep my phone always with the screen turned away from my leg in my pocket and that seems to prevent it well enough, even though I still often get to almost calling 911 when I take it out of my pocket with my hand.

> I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement

But my question was: what is the it that your phone has? I don't have such a button on my lock screen. There's a camera and a flashlight shortcut (too few shortcuts for my liking but better than bare android with zero shortcuts)

There is a large button underneath the number pad where you enter your PIN and it says Emergency Call. It works even when the SIM is still locked.

Ah, right yes that makes sense. I don't want to bother with entering a password on a device I use dozens of times a day so never set one, that explains why I don't see such a button: people can just get to the dialer if they need to call a number while I'm incapacitated

It seems absolutely insane to me not to immediately get a new phone the first time that happens.

It is "absolutely insane" that people don't spend $500-$1K on a new phone the "first time that happens?"

Well I have to now, because the screen also stopped working 90% of the time, except when I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Just 2 months that the phone is conveniently out of warranty. I guess it's the last Samsung Phone I'll ever buy.

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