Google rolls out Expressive Calling to flag urgent calls and bypass Do Not Disturb

Google has begun rolling out a new set of features across its Phone and Gemini apps, bringing updates aimed at clearer communication and more advanced artificial intelligence capabilities for power users, according to reports.

As per a report by 9To5Google, Google’s Expressive Calling feature has started appearing for some users enrolled in the Phone by Google beta programme, following an announcement earlier this month. The feature is designed to make incoming calls appear more urgent and noticeable through enhanced visual indicators and haptic feedback.

Users can check whether the feature is available by navigating to Phone Settings, selecting General and scrolling to Expressive Calling. The primary toggle, which adds visual and vibration effects to calls, is enabled by default. An additional option allows urgent calls to override Do Not Disturb mode, ensuring that important calls are not silenced.

At this stage, Expressive Calling is reported to function only when both the caller and the recipient are using the beta version of the Phone by Google app, said to be version 203. When the feature is supported, callers are prompted to choose whether they want to mark the call as urgent.

If marked urgent, the recipient sees an It’s urgent message on the incoming call screen, along with an animated siren emoji. If the call is missed, it is later labelled as urgent in the call history, making it easier to identify time-sensitive calls.

Separately, Google also officially introduced Gemini 3 Deep Think earlier this month within the Gemini app. The new reasoning mode is available to subscribers on the Google AI Ultra plan and is positioned by the company as its most advanced AI reasoning capability so far.