Google Tests 'Expressive Calling' Feature to Mark Urgent Calls

Illustration of Phone by Google (photo; x @AndroidPolice)

JAKARTA - Google is currently testing a new and interesting feature called 'Expressive Calling' on the Google Phone (Phone by Google) app. This feature, which has just been launched to the beta channel, allows callers to mark certain calls as urgent, giving the recipient a clear warning, even when the recipient activates Do Not Disturb mode (Do Not Disturb or DND).

The main purpose of Expressive Calling is to provide context to phone calls. When users make a call, the app will pop up an option to mark the call as urgent. If this option is selected, the recipient will see a message "It's urgent!" accompanied by a siren emoji animation on their incoming call screen.

Depending on the receiver's device settings, these calls marked as urgent can penetrate DND mode and ring, or appear silently in the notification bar but still be marked as important calls.

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This provides new flexibility, where users no longer need to permanently enter certain contacts into the DND exception list just to anticipate rare emergencies. If this call is missed, the urgent label will also remain in the recipient's call history, distinguishing it from a regular call.

This feature, which is part of the broader Call Reason initiative, is being tested in a limited way. Currently, Expressive Calling only works if both the caller and the recipient are using the beta version of the Google Phone app, and beta users need to enable it through Settings > General > Expressive Calling.

Although this feature is very useful for emergency situations, the potential for abuse remains a major concern for Google. This concern, where callers may abuse the "urgent" label for ordinary calls, is the reason why this feature is still in a strict testing phase before Google decides to launch it stably to the public