Google has finally found the cause of the phone call problem on Android Auto powered by devices updated to Android 11.
Shortly after the first smartphones were updated, users started turning to Google’s forums to report various issues with Android Auto, including broken phone calls.
More specifically, some of those who installed Android 11 said the phone call didn’t start unless the device was unlocked, while others claimed that the sound was routed to the smartphone and not to the car’s speakers.
Google confirmed last week it was looking into the whole thing, and a few hours ago, the company finally came up with a fix that seems to bring things back to normal.
The issue appears to be caused by the screensaver feature that is enabled on the devices powering Android Auto and running Android 11. So the temporary workaround until Google rolls out a full patch is to just disable this screensaver on your device.
“For further investigation of the issue, we want to confirm if you have the Screen Saver settings enabled on the device. If yes, try turning screensaver off in Settings > Display > Advanced > Screen saver. Then ‘When to start’ should be set to ‘Never’. Please inform whether disabling it fixes the problem with placing outbound calls,” a member of the Android Auto team said a few hours ago.
Several users have already confirmed that disabling the screensaver on their devices restores phone calls on Android Auto after the Android 11 update, so it’s now just a matter of time until Google comes up with a full fix for everybody.
Right now, however, it’s not clear if the patch is projected to be part of the next Android Auto update scheduled to land in just a few days or it is supposed to be included in the first Android 11 update expected shortly too.