Google may make butt dialing on your Pixel a problem of the past

If you’ve ever pulled a Pixel phone out of your pocket to find the flashlight on or a half-finished call underway, you’re not alone. Accidental touches have been a long-standing frustration for Pixel owners, but it now appears that Google is preparing to address the issue in a future update.

As first reported by PiunikaWeb, a Google engineer recently marked a related issue as “fixed” on Google’s public issue tracker. In a short comment dated November 29, the engineer said the problem has been resolved and advised users to “watch out for future releases,” which strongly suggests the fix is on its way.

The issue in question is a feature request for accidental touch prevention, with the idea being for Pixel phones to detect when they’re in a pocket or bag and ignore unintended screen input. While the original ticket also included several unrelated feature suggestions, the Google employee later clarified that the company was specifically evaluating the accidental touch prevention request, and the issue has now been marked as fixed.

You might have noticed that this didn’t arrive with the December 2025 update, which rolled out just days after the comment and already included a long list of bug fixes. That makes it clear the change is still pending, likely tied to a future update or feature drop.

Pixel users have been complaining about pocket dialing and rogue screen interactions since at least the Pixel 6 era, with similar issues persisting across newer models. Other Android phone manufacturers have long offered some form of pocket mode, typically using proximity sensors to disable touch input when the screen shouldn’t be active.

For now, Google hasn’t officially shared any details about how its solution will work or when it will land. Still, this is one of the clearest signals yet that a fix is indeed forthcoming, and we’ll be keeping a close eye out for it.