If you use Microsoft Teams for business communications but haven’t updated your app to the latest version, Google encourages you to do so. It seems that a bug has affected the app, blocking emergency calls on Android devices. And as Google and Microsoft work to fix this, the former reminds app users to “urgently update” to the latest version of Teams. While having an older version isn’t exactly the root cause of the problem, it could be one of the reasons it’s happening.

Google sent an email to users who may not have updated their Microsoft Teams app yet. They say your current version can prevent emergency calls to numbers like 911, 999, 112, etc. on Android devices when you are not signed in to the app. This has happened for some users due to “unintentional interaction” between the Microsoft Teams app and the Android operating system. If you updated the app after December 10th, you shouldn’t have any issues although some users may still experience the issue.

Google recommends urgently updating Microsoft Teams on Android devices. pic.twitter.com/oVqtuaXjHp

– Edd Myerscough (@E_Myerscough) December 30, 2021

Many users have probably configured their apps to automatically update to the latest version. But there are also those who have disabled automatic updates to save space on their smartphones. These are the ones receiving this email from Google, so if you haven’t received one, it means your Teams app has been updated to the version that supposedly fixed the bug. Some Reddit users have complained about their devices being blocked when calling emergency services.

Google was ultimately able to trace this to a bug that blocked calls when a user installed Microsoft Teams but had not signed in to their account. This is of course something that should not happen, so Google and Microsoft are prioritizing fixing the problem, especially since these are emergency calls and it can be a matter of life or death. They will also provide an Android platform update in January which should support the connection between the app and the system.

If you haven’t updated your Microsoft Teams app in a while, it might be time to do so now, even if you aren’t having any issues contacting emergency services. Go directly to the play store or the app to update to the latest version.