Microsoft is rolling out a fix for Teams so Android phones can make 911 calls again

We recently learned about a bug in Microsoft Teams that was preventing users from making emergency calls on Android. The bug essentially registered too many PhoneAccounts instances which, in turn, triggered an Android bug that blocked emergency calls. Thankfully, Microsoft has addressed the bug in the latest Teams update, allowing users to seamlessly make 911 calls again.

The latest Microsoft Teams update (v1416/1.0.0.2021194504) is already available through the Google Play Store. In a recent tweet, Mishaal Rahman notes that the updated version of Microsoft Teams calls the clearPhoneAccounts method of TelecomManager on the first launch, clearing all PhoneAccounts instances that were created previously. It then registers a single instance, thereby avoiding the emergency calling bug in Android. XDA Recognized Contributor linuxct has already decompiled and tested the latest Microsoft Teams update and verified that the issue has been fixed.

Microsoft is rolling out an update to Teams that fixes the issue with spawning too many duplicate PhoneAccounts, in some cases triggering an Android bug that blocks emergency calls @linuxct tested and decompiled the latest version to verify the issue is fix in the app. https://t.co/26Je2sZWCS

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) December 11, 2021

If you haven’t received the Microsoft Teams update on your phone yet, you can install it by following the Play Store link below. Note that the emergency calling issue is not limited to Microsoft Teams, and Google is yet to release a fix for the underlying Android bug. This means that malicious apps can still prevent users from making emergency calls on Android by registering too many PhoneAccounts. Thankfully, linuxct has released an app that can help you easily identify if an app is creating too many PhoneAccounts. It’s also worth mentioning that Google is aware of the issue and is currently working on a fix.

For more information on the underlying Android bug, check out Mishaal Rahman’s in-depth explainer.