Google Phone App Gets ‘Call Reason’: Mark Calls as Urgent to Ensure a Pick-Up

Google is testing a new feature in its Phone by Google app that lets users mark calls as urgent, with the recipient seeing an emergency badge on screen to help decide whether to pick up. The aim is to assist people who routinely divert calls to voicemail or prefer not to answer, by signalling that the call may be important without requiring a text message or other app.

For now, the urgent-call feature is limited to Android devices and to users who have the Google Phone app installed, and it works by sending an urgency flag over the network while preventing abuse by requiring both parties to be in each other’s contacts. The feature’s official name is Call Reason, and at present users cannot add emojis or detailed explanations; a short description could be added in the future to help recipients decide more quickly whether to answer.

Call Reason is rolling out in beta and availability depends on the Android OEM, with enablement via the Play Store and setting it as the default dialer under Android Settings.