Google Phone beta rolling out ‘urgent’ Expressive Calling that can break through DND

Following the announcement at the start of this month, Phone by Google’s new “Expressive Calling” feature is beginning to roll out for beta users.

To check if this is available on your device, go to Phone Settings > General > Expressive Calling (near the bottom). The high-level preference (“Enhance calling with visual and haptic feedback”) is enabled by default. It’s up to you whether “Urgent call can interrupt Do Not Disturb” is on.

It appears that both parties have to be on the Phone by Google beta (version 203) to get this to work at this stage. If they are, the calling screen will show a “Mark call as urgent?” card above the usual controls that let you tap “Notify.” 

The person you are calling will see an “It’s urgent!” message on their screen with an animated siren emoji. If they miss the call, an “urgent” label will appear in call history. 

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In other developments, Phone by Google 202 is now in the stable channel, but the shorter bottom bar and “Keep portrait mode” setting are not yet widely rolled out. They remain in the beta, but hopefully these tweaks will see a server-side rollout sooner rather than later. 

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