Google Phone beta rolls out 'Expressive Calling' with DND bypass option

Google Phone app's latest beta introduces expressive calling feature, letting users mark calls as urgent with animated alerts, visual cues, and optional DND interruption

After announcing it earlier this month, Google is now reportedly releasing a beta update for its Phone app, which brings the ‘urgent’ Expressive Calling feature. According to a report by 9To5Google, this feature is available in Google Phone app version 203, for now. As per the report, it appears that both parties have to be on the aforementioned beta version to get this feature to work. If they are, the calling screen will show a “Mark call as urgent?” card above the usual controls that let you tap “Notify.”

 

As per the report, to see if this feature is available on your device, navigate to Phone Settings > General > Expressive Calling (toward the bottom). The main setting, “Enhance calling with visual and haptic feedback,” is turned on by default, while “Urgent call can interrupt Do Not Disturb” is optional.

 

  When both callers are on the latest beta update, a “Mark call as urgent?” card will appear on the calling screen above the usual controls. Tapping “Notify” sends an “It’s urgent!” message to the recipient, complete with an animated siren emoji. If the call is missed, an “urgent” label will appear in their call history.

Other updates

Earlier this month, Google also introduced Expressive Captions for live videos, generating real-time captions with context cues for tone, ambient sounds, and emotions such as joy or sadness. As per the company, this feature aims to give viewers more context when audio is off, enhancing short videos, livestreams, and social stories by surfacing non-verbal signals alongside transcribed text. 

  Other notable updates focus on convenience and safety: Google Messages now shows clearer warnings and one-tap actions for unwanted group-chat invites, while the new Circle to Search tool provides AI-backed scam checks directly from messages. Chrome for Android lets users pin important tabs for easier access, and Gboard’s Emoji Kitchen adds new sticker combos for more expressive messaging options.