Google Pixel 6 reportedly ghost dialing contacts at random — not good

The Google Pixel 6 Pro (in black) and Google Pixel 6 (in coral) laid next to each other on wooden decking
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Update: This Google Pixel 6's ghost dialling problem has now been fixed thanks to an update to the Google app. You can read more about it through the link.

The Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been out for less than three weeks, and early buyers who were able to get their pre-orders in have been running into odd bugs.

Earlier this week we reported about a screen flickering issue and double punch holes appearing on the display. Then we heard that Android 12 is draining batteries on Pixel devices, though it's not clear how much this affects older Pixels versus the new Pixel 6 models. And now it seems that random dialing is another issue owners are having to deal with. 

In a Reddit thread, as spotted by Android Authority, users on the Google Pixel subreddit have been voicing their annoyance with Google's latest flagship. Users are finding their devices randomly calling contacts at all parts of the day. It does seem that disabling 'Hey Google' solves the problem. As of publishing, Google has not addressed the issue. Tom's Guide has contacted Google about this problem and will update this article upon reply. 

"I wake up at 7am with a call in progress tone. I was so confused I looked at my phone to see who was calling me and to my surprise my phone called a friend that I never called before," said user Emergency_Passage281, the original author of the Reddit thread. 

Another user asked the original poster to look in their Assistant recordings to see if the Google Assistant might have heard something during their sleep. Emergency_Passage281 looked at his/her history and found that Google Assistant selected a contact and called it without any voice command. And the screen was off throughout this process. 

Other users resolved this issue by disabling Google Assistant. Since doing so, the problem has not cropped up. But, of course, the hands-free feature is now inoperable. While inconvenient, it's better than accidentally calling an ex. 

Other users have gone ahead and disabled the Google Assistant lock screen functionality as well. 

Earlier this week, another user posted a similar problem on Google's Pixel support site, but as of publishing, a Google customer service representative has not replied to the thread. 

Imad Khan

Imad is currently Senior Google and Internet Culture reporter for CNET, but until recently was News Editor at Tom's Guide. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with the New York Times, the Washington Post, ESPN, Wired and Men's Health Magazine, among others. Outside of work, you can find him sitting blankly in front of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.