Google Shamed Into Action On Android Text Bug
After six months twiddling its thumbs, Google may fix a bug which could hurt careers and relationships
Following a campaign by users, Google has uprated a bug that causes Android phones to send text messages to the wrong people, raising hopes of a speedy fix.
The bug, which sends SMS text messages to the wrong recipient, while reporting they have been sent properly, could have serious consequences for users, but was labelled as “medium” in Google’s forums for six months. An Internet campaign, prompted by Google’s inaction, has got the bug upgraded to “critical” but there is still no word on when it will be fixed.
Jobs and relationships at risk
The bug was reported on 28 June, by a user in New Zealand running Android 2.2 on a new Nexus One phone – the Android flagship which Google discontinued later last year. It was later reported on other phones including the HTC Desire.
Although some sources suggest it won’t be rife in the UK, a staff member in the eWEEK UK office was hit by the bug before Christmas – thankfully without sending any embarassing messages to the wrong people.
When it strikes, text messages are sent to random recipients, although they still appear in the correct thread of the phone’s message display. Only by opening the message details can the error be found – by which time it is obviously too late.
Six months on, with no action from Google, forum user authorwjf said: “I think the only way we are going to get this fixed is to just blast it all over the internet”. Over the New Year period, the bug was “starred” by nearly 7,000 people, and attracted around 1,400 comments, all demanding that Google should respond to the issue.
“This is akin to an alarm clock that occasionally won’t go off,” said Engadget’s Chris Ziegler, referring to the iPhone’s alarm clock problem, which left users sleeping when the clocks changed for Summer Time, and did the same thing on New Year’s day, “or a car that randomly won’t let you turn the steering wheel – you simply cannot have a phone that you can’t trust to communicate with the right people. It’s a deal-breaker.”
“We’re pretty shocked that these issues weren’t tied up and blasted to all affected phones as an over-the-air patch months ago,” said Ziegler.
