Google is reaching out to users about the trusted places bug that has been causing issues for some users. Over the past few months or more a number of users have been having problems using the Trusted Places smart lock feature on their devices, and now it looks like Google is actively reaching out to users in attempts to receive bug reports about the problem and work towards a fix for the issue as a whole. One Google employee on the Google Product Forums has noted as of yesterday that while the product teams continue to seek out and find the cause of the problem, he’ll be looking to contact some affected individuals by email. It’s also noted that the bug reports Google is looking for are for Android 7.1.2 Nougat.
That post went out yesterday on April 26th, and since then there has been a handful of other posts in the forums but they’re all from users, which means so far Google hasn’t come up with a fix yet and is likely still gathering information from users on the bug. Unfortunately this also means there is no time frame on a potential fix but users should rest assured that Google is likely going to post about the fix in the same thread, so anyone with the problem should be keeping an eye on it if they aren’t already.
The range of users reporting on the issue appears to have been ongoing for quite a while and although there is no resolution just yet, Google making an effort to attack the inconsistency issues with it is a good sign that there is at least something being done to get a fix onto user’s devices at some point. Having been as long as it has though, there’s no telling how long it may still take before a fix is pushed out and trusted places works as intended and with better accuracy than it does currently. For the time being, since the problem seems to be persisting for many users at this point it’s probably a good idea to either use a different Smart Lock method or just unlock the device using a PIN, password, or fingerprint.