Microsoft's Skype Lite causes 'phantom calls' Bluetooth bug on Android devices!

Skype is one of the very important assets owned by Microsoft and with the service being supported with regular updates on major platforms like Android, it makes up a large part of the user base for the service. However, as per an entry in the Google Issue Tracker, Skype Lite app is becoming an issue on Android phones due to a Bluetooth bug called Phantom Calls on Android devices running Android Oreo.

Photo Credits : Android Police

Users report the issue as below:

In the car, the time appears saying 0:00 and eventually starts counting up. No phone call was actually placed. The phantom call steals away any other audio playback, so I have to hang up using the car’s control, then everything is back to normal. Sometimes this random call pops up again during active audio playback and I have to hang it up again

On a BT headset, like Jaybird X2, obviously no call information is displayed because there’s no screen. But if I rub the mic on the headset, I can hear crackling, and also at this point turning off the BT headset will result in its parting sounds or words to be clearly worse quality because it thinks it’s connected to a call. The only ways to resolve the issue on a headset are to start and stop an actual call, or just disable the “Phone calls” checkbox in BT settings on the phone.

Note: On the phone, no information about this phantom call appears. The Dialer does not show it, nothing in notifications, etc.

It is strange to note that even if all the permissions of Skype Lite are turned off, the issue still persists. A user today found a workaround for the affected devices which was to uninstall Skype Lite until a fix arrives from the Skype team at Microsoft.

Until then, you can use the full Skype app and hope that Microsoft releases a fix for this major issue very soon.

Via : Android Police