Google Voice app stops when you rotate the phone

[gquiring]

I have a strange problem. I use Google Voice as my voicemail. When I start playing the voicemail and put the phone to my ear to listen to the message it stops.

I tested this a few times and it's always the same problem. If you hold the phone straight up/down to your ear it will play the message. But when rotate the phone it will pause the message! It's not comfortable to hold phone straight up/down, the average person is going to hold the phone at an angle against your ear.

I'm running Oreo 8.0 not rooted. I have rebooted the phone and it's still not working correctly.

 

[gquiring]

I made a quick video showing the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X5jXVDLyFg

 

[LeoRex]

Don't be concerned.. what's really going on here is that in portrait, it's playing the audio in mono, merging the stereo speakers into one. When you rotate into landscape, it stops the audio stream while the media system switches to stereo.

Yes, they could beef up the code a bit to start it up again once switched, bit Voice isn't really an audio app... If you play a video on YouTube, it's handle the orientation switch more seamlessly.

 

[gquiring]

Don't be concerned..

Concerned? How about PITA!!! I don't hold my phone level when I put to me ear. It goes horizontal which means every time I try to listen a voice mail it gets paused. And it did not happen on my Nexus 6P. This seems to a be Pixel issue.

 

[LeoRex]

Don't go horizonal when you go to your ear? Sounds silly, but it is what it is. Different phones handle certain situations differently, don't know what to say. Maybe they tweak Voice to handle this better, maybe not.. but there is a fairly easy workaround in any case.

 

[gquiring]

Don't go horizonal when you go to your ear? Sounds silly, but it is what it is. Different phones handle certain situations differently, don't know what to say. Maybe they tweak Voice to handle this better, maybe not.. but there is a fairly easy workaround in any case.

I hope you are not a developer, attitudes like that are the reason software is so poorly designed. Google has no excuse for not addressing this issue. Telling a customer to hold the phone at a certain angle is like going back to the iPhone 4 days with the antenna issue.

 

[LeoRex]

I hope you are not a developer, attitudes like that are the reason software is so poorly designed. Google has no excuse for not addressing this issue. Telling a customer to hold the phone at a certain angle is like going back to the iPhone 4 days with the antenna issue.

Actually, I'm in QA (not at Google btw), but that's besides the point. Do you think Google is going to stop everything to fix what amounts to a nuisance in behavior that exists in an edge use case (most people do not hold their phones horizontal when they hold it to their ear)?

It has probably already been found and entered, but something like this would get triaged way down the list of priorities. I've opened too many defects like this to count over the years... It's a defect, so I do my due diligence and submit it, but I know out the gate that a fix for it may never see the light of day.

 

[gquiring]

I'm not getting my phone anyway near horizontal when it flips. And I google searched some people holding their phones and I don't see where I am off base here. I put a digital level on my Pixel and it rotates the screen at 22.8 degrees. Looking at photos online I am finding plenty of users holding their phone at about that angle.

 

[Kayza]

This hardly sounds like an edge case to me. I suggest you actually look at the way people hold their phones - it is rare that a larger phone is actually fully vertical, and totally horizontal is quite common.

 

[Javier P]

Just a thought. I haven't tried this, so I don't know if it could work. You could try an app like Tasker or Ultimate Rotation Control to force portrait mode when using any app. Not perfect and a bit messy, but it could be a workaround until this issue gets fixed.

A first test could be manually locking portrait mode, check your voicemails and see if the problem persists.

 

[LeoRex]

Then go into Google's public issue tracker and submit a ticket. In the meantime, you can make a minor adjustment and avoid the issue completely.

 

[Aquila]

Normal side effect of mono to stereo step and change in stereo direction step on phones for years.

 

[gquiring]

I got an update this week to Google Voice and my voicemails no longer pause when you rotate the phone.