Google disables Take a Message on older Pixel phones amid audio leak bug

Google is disabling some Phone app features on older Pixel devices after acknowledging a bug that inadvertently leaked audio to callers. The issue has specifically been linked to the Take a Message feature released last year, which automatically answers and transcribes voicemails when you miss a call, with a handful of Pixel 4 and 5 owners reporting that their microphones were activating when callers were leaving messages.

“We’ve investigated this issue, which we’ve confirmed affects a very small subset of Pixel 4 and 5 devices under very specific and rare circumstances,” said Google community manager Siri Tejaswini on a support page. “Out of an abundance of caution, we’re disabling Take a Message and next-gen Call Screen features from these devices.”

One Reddit user who experienced the bug said that callers did not hear their usual voicemail greeting, and that they “could hear me/room sounds while they were leaving a message.” The user describes how the microphone…