Alex Walker-Todd / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google’s Phone app has historically forced a portrait orientation while making calls.
- Users have recently noticed that this no longer holds true, and some devices set to auto-rotate will turn even in calls.
- We’re not seeing this behavior consistently across devices, and it’s unclear if it’s truly intended.
The vast majority of your smartphone usage probably takes place in portrait mode, ideal for one-handed operation. When we’re turning our phones for landscape viewing, that’s usually tied to a very specific purpose, like watching a movie, gaming, or shooting with the camera. What about making a call, though? That’s not normally something we associate with rotating our phones, so we’re finding it easy to understand why so many Android users are suddenly confused by landscape-orientation calls.
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We first caught wind of this thanks to a post in Reddit’s Pixel sub from user whappenow, who shared that the Phone app on their Pixel had recently started going into landscape mode. Unless you’re making a call through earbuds, or rocking an insane handset like the LG Wing, landscape isn’t really a screen orientation that makes a ton of sense for phone calls.
Curious what was going on, we tried to replicate this behavior on a number of our devices, and sure enough: on some of them, Google Phone now appears to follow system auto-rotate settings and will run in landscape, even during a call. On others, you can browse your contacts in landscape, and even dial the number, but the app forces portrait view when a call is actually initiated.
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
If that seems unintuitive to you, you’re not alone, and for the moment we’re feeling a bit conflicted about just how intentional this change may be. At least, it feels like Google went out of its way before to keep the in-call interface locked to portrait, but if it really is changing its mind about that now, why aren’t we seeing the new behavior more consistently?
It’s possible that part of this may be controlled by a server-side account setting on Google’s end, and it will eventually spread to affect everyone, but for the moment we haven’t been able to nail down a clear set of requirements for activating it. On the flip side, maybe an unrelated Android change is causing the old portrait-only lock to fail, and this really is a glitch.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on our phones in the days to come to try and see if this spreads to more of them, or maybe even stops happening altogether. Got any predictions? Share your take down in the comments.
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