Calling dialing 112 turns airplane mode off

Onlyfun

Hello,

I have just found out that dialing 112 turns off the airplane mode. Even of the device is locked. That emergency call does not go further, but the airplane mode stays is off. And a repeated emergency call does connect. I assume aandroid is designed this way to make it more user' safety on order there is a real emergency happening and going through unlocking, turning airplane mode off, to make lifesaving call might cost that user too much. Which does not mean and option to change this bevior wrong. I'm wondering if there is way to restrcit such behavior i graphene os? So that the airplane mode is only acyivated/deactivated by it's toggle in Settings > Network & Internet. I have looked everywhere but yet to see anything useful. Is this left unchaged by graphene os? If so doent it decreasefaith in airplane mode since there this 'safety' workaround? Has anybody successfully achieve this? With ADB? That'd be very usefull to know what exactly changes are required, other than long experimenting on my own.

Please share your thoughts!

But please dont respond with suggestions on it's importance for physical safety of user. I reserve the right for such decisions.

grayway2

Onlyfun There is nothing you can do to prevent airplane to be off after an emergency call attempt. At least for now.

GrapheneOS plans to add early boot lock for DE storage space with the owner profile credentials.

DE storage space, store things like WiFi or airplane settings.

However, [a developer] said that emergency calls will be possible even if device will be in BFU like it was with FDE. Will it bypass airplane mode to make the emergency calls ? I don't know

I don't even know how DE space will be fully locked and emergency calls work at the same time.

I don't know if this will change in AFU.

Mod note: changed a written out name for a developer because there are multiple developers for GrapheneOS and not everyone knows their names.

fid02

Onlyfun I assume aandroid is designed this way

That's correct; it's standard AOSP behaviour. I can't find that it's specifically mentioned in Android documentation, except for in the source code, but that may just be because it's such a commonly known feature. Android documentation considers emergency calling to be critical functionality, so the feature makes sense from that perspective. Dialling an emergency number also turns on the microphone.

Onlyfun on order there is a real emergency happening and going through unlocking, turning airplane mode off, to make lifesaving call might cost that user too much.

Well, maybe. But another reason might be that the Android designers wanted an opening for someone other than you to be able to pick up your phone in an emergency situation, and to ensure that that person could actually use the phone to make an emergency call. If their own phone is, say, out of battery, they'll be grabbing for the next available phone in their vicinity. If the person intends to make the call because you're incapacitated or not present, and they can't unlock your phone… They might not have an alternative phone close by, or an alternative phone might be far away.

fid02

Onlyfun I'm wondering if there is way to restrcit such behavior i graphene os?

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/20451-about-device-encrypted-de-storage-with-owner-lock-pinpassword/11

fid02

Onlyfun But please dont respond with suggestions on it's importance for physical safety of user. I reserve the right for such decisions.

A discussion about disabling a personal safety feature was brought up, so it seems pretty relevant to be discussing both positive and negative aspects of such a feature. My impression is that the forum moderators allow for discussions about pros and cons of feature requests. But perhaps your polite request to not discuss negative aspects is grounded in a worry that people will reply in an aggressive or disrespectful way (which unfortunately seems to generally be too common a way to engage with other people on internet forums)?

roamer4223

Anyone know if there is a feature request on github regarding this?

roamer4223

I would really like there to be an option for airplane mode not to turn off unless phone is AFU, no matter what.

I'm not one for messing around with stuff and I wouldn't advise this, but I guess you could maybe delete the list of emergency numbers stored in the phone or something.

However, I will wait and I will go with whatever the devs decide, as I trust their judgment

Onlyfun

wow, i turns out to be a old one figuresd I with a little better search, but regardless of being discussd for year i did not see a solution commonly accepted. So here i am not alarming but checking if there is any sustainable progress on it?

grayway2

Onlyfun no progress or little progress. It's very complicate to implement. If not implemented correctly it might be a disaster.

roamer4223

I just posted on github on an issue that I think may have been addressing it

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/5180#issuecomment-2796786329

fid02

roamer4223 I just posted on github on an issue that I think may have been addressing it

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/5180#issuecomment-2796786329

It could defend against data collection, like details about your phone's IMEI number when it connects.

If the assumption is that you want your phone to be able to call an emergency number, but do not want that functionality to auto-disable airplane mode, then the cellular network would get your IMEI as soon as you make that call, regardless of any auto-disable feature being enabled or not. Unless you never intend to make an emergency call from that phone. Or you never want that phone to connect to a cellular network.

Onlyfun

fid02 I asked to avoid some specific answers as they do not get me any closer to my goal, and only seem to steer away resulting in waste of time which we are all here not for, hopefully.

Meanwhile i was able to confirm, that its actually possible with not much effort. Now the emergency call button on lock screen is deactivated and pressing it does not bring up the dialer thus no emergency dial is possible and airplane mode can't be disabled by energency call. One more little win.

roamer4223

fid02 please understand, I know this would be a toggle that would only be used in particular situations.

And to your point, I believe there are users like myself who may or may not have a phone doesn't connect to the cellular network by their choice.

Regardless, let's posit this situation.

There is a user who is travelling somewhere where they do not want any identifiers on their phone in BFU state (only temporarily). They would be able to turn this feature on, turn airplane mode on and turn off their phone. Of course this would be used along with all the other exploit protections like USB-C being turned off, etc.
In this case, unless their phone was taken apart, it would be very difficult to pull any identifiers from.

By the way, just to be clear, I love discussing things like this and enjoy learning where I might be misinformed. It's part of why I love this community

fid02

Onlyfun That emergency call does not go further, but the airplane mode stays is off. And a repeated emergency call does connect.

That sounds like a bug or some glitch. I would assume that Android does not intended for the user to have to dial an emergency number twice for the call to get through.

roamer4223

@fid02

Following on from my previous message, above.

Am I wrong, and also, is there in anyone else's opinion, a reasonable use case for this? Also is it worth having some phones that won't be able to reach emergency services while this feature is on and phone locked? I believe, as long as the user understands the risk, this is ok. But that is just my opinion.

Of course it could also potentially help stop a hypothetical future exploit involving the phone connecting to the network, but of course that is pure speculation. I totally understand this so it's not an argument with much weight.