Android: What the siren emojis on incoming calls are all about

The phone rings. You glance at the screen, then slip it back into your pocket. Most people don’t like to admit it, but nearly everyone ignores a call now and then – usually assuming it isn’t important. Do that too often, however, and you might miss something urgent. To help prevent this, Google is now rolling out a new feature.

Expressive Calling is a new function in the Phone by Google app that allows callers to mark a call as urgent when dialing. The recipient then sees a message reading “It’s urgent!” along with a red siren emoji. It is currently rolling out gradually in the app’s beta version. When enabled, urgent calls can bypass Do Not Disturb mode or at least be highlighted, depending on the user’s settings. The urgency label also remains visible in the call log for missed calls. However, both the caller and the recipient must be using the beta version of the app and have the feature enabled.

Initial reports about Expressive Calling come from sources such as Android Police, while Google has yet to make an official announcement. Community reactions have been mixed. Some users welcome the idea, while others raise concerns about potential misuse. On Reddit, users have warned that spam or marketing calls could abuse the “urgent” label, quickly undermining its intended purpose. Whether Expressive Calling moves beyond the beta stage will likely depend on how effectively Google addresses these concerns.