Google starts testing Android's new DND-overriding call option

Do Not Disturb is one of the most useful features our phones have, and often feels like the last line of defense against a world that wants us constantly assailed by notifications. But sometimes someone really, really needs to get in touch with us, so it’s good to know that we have options there, whether that’s designating contacts who can override DND, or recognizing repeat callers by their urgency. With the arrival of QPR2 earlier this month, Google announced another way it was giving us an option to punch through DND — and that’s finally starting to arrive now.

We’re talking about Expressive Calling, and more specifically, Call Reason. We’ve been following work on this addition for a few weeks now, and while Google formally announced it back at the start of the month, it only told us that public beta testing would be starting soon. We still can’t say exactly how widespread availability may be, but we’ve finally received confirmation from users who have gotten access, like Jiggs on Telegram, who shares this:

Even in these truncated screenshots, we can see Expressive Calling starting to arrive. Critically, for those of you who might have been worried about giving all your contacts the ability to override DND settings, you can still view these Call Reason statuses without allowing urgent ones to get past DND.

Whether or not we’ll need to take advantage of that option really remains to be seen. This is a powerful new ability Google is giving Android users, and until it’s out there for a while, we’re not going to have a great sense for how people use it — and how many abuse it. Will some callers get in the habit of marking everything as urgent? Apparently we’re about to start finding out.