For owners of legacy Pixel devices, a clever convenience recently turned into a privacy headache. Google has officially confirmed a glitch in “Take a Message” that, under specific conditions, kept the Pixel Phone’s microphone active and leaked background audio with callers . To protect users, the company is now making the tough call to disable the Take a Message feature entirely on the Pixel 4 and 5 series.
Google disables “Take a Message” on Pixel 4 and 5 to Fix mic audio leak bug
The “Take a Message” tool was designed to be a helpful digital assistant. When you declined or missed a call, it would ask the caller to leave a message while showing you a live transcript. However, a small group of users noticed something unsettling: even after the automated greeting finished, the green microphone privacy indicator remained visible on their screens.
In practice, this meant that while the caller was leaving a message, they could actually hear everything happening around the recipient’s phone . This was a breach of the private space we expect our devices to respect. Google claims that the bug only affected a “very small subset” of users. Still, risk was high enough to warrant a swift response.
Why disabling was the only solution
You might wonder why Google didn’t simply issue a software patch. The thing is that the Pixel 4 and 5 series have reached their end-of-life status. This means they no longer receive regular Android operating system updates. Without the ability to push a deep system fix, Google opted for an “abundance of caution” approach .
By remotely disabling “Take a Message” and “Next-gen Call Screen” on these specific models, Google ensured that the microphone bug couldn’t be triggered again (via 9to5Google ). It is a drastic move, but a necessary one. Google is now a company that markets privacy as a core feature. A “hot mic” active on thousands of devices wasn’t acceptable.
If you are still rocking a Pixel 4 or 5, you will notice the feature disappearing from your settings. The good news is that you aren’t completely cut off. You can still use the standard manual and automatic Call Screening. You can also simply rely on your carrier’s traditional voicemail.
