Google Voice bug where mic gets cut out when multitasking is under investigation

Several Google Voice users have been reporting an issue where their mic gets cut out when they try to go to another app during a call, forcing them to always stay on that screen and preventing them from taking advantage of their device’s multitasking capabilities.

According to reports, the issue has been present for at least a couple of months, and some people thought it was related to an Android 14 update. However, users of devices running Android 13 were also complaining about the same thing, so the clues pointed to a bug directly affecting the Google Voice app.

This issue arises when using Google Voice for a call, where, if you attempt to switch to another app or screen, the other person loses audio from your microphone entirely. However, you can still hear them, indicating that only your microphone is affected.

A Google Product Expert confirmed through the support forums that the Google Voice engineering team is already aware of the issue where the mic is cutting out when multitasking during a call. Additionally, as a potential workaround, it is recommended to set the ‘Making and receiving calls’ option to ‘Use carrier only’ from the app settings.

In December, the Product Expert estimated that the bug fix would not arrive until at least January 2024, so it could be available in the next few days or weeks. However, no updates or new developments have emerged in this regard that could allow us to know the status of the situation.

In case your device is a OnePlus, we have bad news for you, as the same Product Expert also revealed that the brand’s smartphones do not work properly with Google Voice when using carrier calling, and noted that the company (OnePlus) does not seem to be interested in fixing that.

Let’s hope that the rollout fix doesn’t take much longer to arrive so that people can return to using Google Voice normally on their devices while doing other tasks.