tried to initiate CALL via web portal, now phone is stuck

Hi,

I just tried using the web portal to initiate a call from my phone (command “Call (a number)”). My phone screen went black, the web portal command log reported that “the call is being made now”…but no call was received.

My phone is now stuck with a blank black screen (except I can see the Android status drag-down bar at the top), and I can’t do anything with it. Even attempting to go into the Android settings menu (by dragging down the top bar) does not work. :frowning:

I sent a “2222 CALL nnn…” command from a friend mobile and the behaviour was the same. Phone screen stayed black/blank and did not initiate any call, but I received a response SMS saying that “the call is being made now”. I also tried sending a “2222 CLOSE” command (to close the AMS UI) but this does not bring the phone out of its stupor.

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 2. It’s not rooted, so I can’t use the “2222 REBOOT” command. I actually have two phone dialer apps on my phone, and neither is set as the default dialer. So I suspect that Avast has blacked/blanked the screen (to try and make a discreet call) but my phone has popped up a UI prompt (behind Avast) to ask me which phone dialer I want to use.

So my question is:

  • Is there any way to close the Avast “black blank screen” remotely (via SMS or portal)?

I’ve even tried calling my phone, but I can’t answer it due to Avast’s black/blank screen. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I’m now going to plug my phone into a laptop just in case I enabled debug mode (could always try rebooting via adb I guess)?..

I managed to get access to my phone again, by calling it from another number and then immediately hanging up. Even though I can’t answer the call while it’s incoming, I can get into my dialer app after the caller hangs up (by dragging down the top bar and clicking on “missed call”…which goes to my dialer’s call log).

I have now set the phone defaults so that only one dialer (the one provided by Samsung) is used for handling calls. Tried initiating a call with “2222 CALL” but I get the same problem with a black/blank screen the phone not actually initiating a call. Same result via the web portal.

Any hints as to what settings I need to check inside Anti-Theft would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

hm the black screen is on purpose to hide the call. if you do a call from a web page (through link) does it then go directly or does a chooser appear?

Same problem here. I have a Huawei IDEOS X5 Android 4.0.4 with a custom ROM, and when I try to initialize a call via the website (didn’t try by SMS) the command is received but the screen gets all black and shows only the notification bar. I then have to either send a reboot command via website or remove my phone’s battery.

I’d be glad to give you more details in order to fix this issue.

after beta is released you can anyways record audio without call command from web.

Isn’t that option premium-only?

yes, so the premium benefit is to have a really reliable solution (unfortunately we cannot make the CALL option much better due to Android limitations)

THANK YOU. I called my phone with another one and hanged up and it work! I would have been killed if my parents found out!
Btw calling it works!