A Privacy Nightmare Ends a Helpful Pixel Feature for Older Devices

Thursday, 29 January 2026 at 10:32

It’s always a bit of a gamble when a tech giant tries to "backport" shiny new features to legacy hardware. We saw it happen again this week, and unfortunately, this time it’s ending in a bit of a privacy disaster. Google has officially pulled the plug on its "Take a Message" feature for the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 series.

If you haven't used it, "Take a Message" was supposed to be the modern evolution of voicemail. Launched alongside the Pixel 10, it uses on-device AI to answer your calls, transcribe what the caller is saying in real-time, and save it all neatly in your call history. It sounds great on paper—until your phone starts broadcasting your private conversations to whoever happens to be calling you.

Key Points

Feature Disabled: Google has officially killed the "Take a Message" AI feature for Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 models.
Audio Leak: A bug allowed callers to hear ambient background audio from the recipient's phone during the voicemail greeting.
Legacy Hardware: Only older models are being cut off; the bug persists on some newer models but will be fixed via software patches.
No Patch for Old Pixels: Because the Pixel 4 and 5 are end-of-life, Google cannot issue the necessary system-level security updates.
Fallback Options: Affected users must return to traditional carrier voicemail or basic manual call screening.

When the Microphone Stays "Hot"

Reports started bubbling up on Reddit and Google’s support forums a few months back, but they’ve reached a fever pitch lately. Users—specifically those on older hardware like the Pixel 4a—began noticing that callers could hear them in the background while the automated message was playing. Imagine missing a call while you're venting about a coworker, only to realize the person on the other end heard every word because your phone’s microphone didn't shut off.

Google’s community managers have now confirmed that a "very small subset" of these older devices were experiencing this audio leak. The culprit seems to be a failure in the call-isolation logic. Basically, instead of the phone creating a wall between the mic and the caller, the line stayed "hot."

Why a Fix Isn't Coming

The most frustrating part for long-time Pixel fans is that Google isn't even trying to patch this for the 4 and 5 series. Since these phones are technically past their "best-by" date for official system updates (the Pixel 4 lost support in 2022), Google doesn't have a clean way to push a deep system-level fix.

I think this highlights a growing problem with the "AI-everything" era. We want these cool features on our old reliable phones, but if the hardware doesn't have the modern security silos to handle it, we end up with "hot mic" situations like this. For now, if you’re still rocking a Pixel 5, you’re going back to carrier voicemail. It’s clunky, it’s old-fashioned, but at least it won't accidentally broadcast your private life to your landlord.