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Surface Earbuds making random FaceTime calls to people in my contacts list

Anonymous
2020-07-21T19:40:12+00:00

My Surface Earbuds will sometimes initiate random FaceTime calls and regular calls with people in my contacts list.

It's not even recent contacts - they've been people I haven't talked to in years.  Seems related to the touch controls, like I accidentally bump it and next thing I know it's calling someone and I'm panicking and trying to find my phone to cancel the call.  It happened multiple times the one time I fell asleep with them in, but it's also happened while just wearing them around the house.

Seems like a *serious* design flaw, but I've googled and don't see anyone talking about it.

I wish there was an option to disable executing phone commands from them, but the only option seems to be to completely disable touch controls.

Anyone else having this issue?  Or know of a way to disable this feature?

Surface | Surface earbuds | Touch and gestures

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-21T22:42:13+00:00

    Hi, ConnectionRefused!

    Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community. We are sorry to learn that your Surface Earbuds somehow is making outbound Facetime and regular calls with your iPhone. Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this and allowing us to help you out. This is actually the first time I have encountered this issue. As for your inquiry regarding a setting to disable its touch function, I'm afraid there's no option to do so. This is a good suggestion that you can post via the Feedback Hub app. Please open this page to be guided: https://support.microsoft.com/help/4021566/

    To answer and end a call, you only have to double-tap.

    It might have something to do with the digital assistant as it gets activated when you touch and hold the touch surface on either of the earbuds. 

    As for troubleshooting, you may try checking if there's an update needed on your iPhone's OS and its apps. 

    If the issue is still present, kindly unpair and re-pair the Earbuds as well.

    Can you also try pairing it on another smartphone to see if the same thing happens?

    Last thing to do is to reset the earbuds. Please go to to this page for steps: https://support.microsoft.com/help/4557589

    If the issue is still present, kindly Contact Microsoft Support****for further assistance.

    If this answers your question, please let our Community know by marking this post as an answer. Otherwise, don't hesitate to respond to this thread if there’s anything else that needs to be addressed. 

    Kind regards,

    Janette_Z

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2020-09-13T12:48:46+00:00

    YES, this occurs! Suddenly the iPhone dials a number out of the contacts, the reason seems to be a "wrong" tapping with the digital assistant-function. It is very bad to call someone due to a small mistake with the right fingertip. To switch off the touch input function may help immediately, but it would be better to have (by future firmware versions) three options for the touch function:

    1. All features together as implemented 
    2. Only Audio-Controls (Volume, Stop, Start, Next, Previous ...)
    3. Switch off
    18 people found this answer helpful.
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