“Nothing is permanent except change” ~ Heraclitus
Understanding technology performance is vital, even when you think you are in a steady state.
Observability is too often seen as a tool only needed during transitions or to resolve technology issues in a troubled contact center.
Understanding technology performance is vital, even when you think you are in a steady state.
The reality is that cloud contact centres have far more technical dependencies than the legacy platforms they replace, with more technology change and greater opportunities to cause issues.
A recent Chrome update (version 136.0.7103.49 to be precise) is a great example, this is the 30th update to Chrome in 2025, with most organisations trusting that there won’t be issues and automatically deploying the latest version.
Many Agents with this version found out ‘the hard way’ that they were unable to answer calls with an ‘unable to share headset’ error message.
What was the issue?
WebRTC’s getUserMedia API is responsible for granting web applications access to audio devices:
navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ audio: true });
In Chrome version 136.0.7103.49 this process sometimes failed, the softphone could not detect a microphone and the agent was unable to answer the call. Because this broke entirely within the browser layer, traditional monitoring network logs, driver checks and firewall rules showed no issues.
What likely unfolded that morning reads like a chain reaction. Chrome’s update slipped into agents’ machines overnight. As soon as someone clicked “Answer,” the softphone silently asked the browser for microphone access and received a flat refusal. From there, calls began accumulating like cars at a red light that never turned green: each new incoming call simply waited at the front of the queue.
Behind the scenes, agents instinctively reached for their headsets, checked the jacks, swapped USB ports and even rebooted their computers, yet every test returned nothing but blank screens and unanswered rings.
Without visibility into the broken API call, desktop and network teams were left chasing shadows: poring over firewall logs, updated drivers and reconfigured policies only to confirm that on their end, everything looked normal.
Meanwhile, supervisors would have freaked out seeing hold times stretch and call abandonment rates creep upward. In an attempt to stem the tide, they might have rerouted traffic to chat and email channels, only to see those lines soon become swamped too. As each workaround hit its limit, frustration rippled outward: customers who expected quick resolutions wound up pressing “0” or hanging up altogether; agents spent precious minutes of billed time filing help-desk tickets instead of talking to people; and leadership found strategy meetings replaced by emergency huddles to triage the latest symptom.
All of this sprang from a single browser regression that operated invisibly to standard monitoring tools, shifting proactive support to frantic firefighting until the broken update was identified and rolled back. That domino effect, from silent API failure to full-scale operational scramble, is a stark reminder of how intertwined and fragile contact-centre ecosystems can be when a critical dependency breaks without warning.
As soon as the issue was acknowledged by AWS/Chrome, Operata notified customers using the in-app banner.
Customers could then use Operata to both understand the agents with this version of Chrome and the number of calls impacted by the issue it created.
Once Chrome released the fix (version 136.0.1703.93) Operata notified Customers who could then use the platform to confirm that all agents had updated.
Contact center environments weave together browsers, softphones, networks and endpoints, all evolving independently. Relying on vendor and IT testing alone is a roll of the dice. This event was a reminder that contact centers environments are complex and every extension, driver and OS version introduces variables that standard tests may not cover.
Continuous observability surfaces these blind spots. With telemetry on browser builds, API calls and call-handling outcomes, teams detect anomalies instantly, trace them to their root cause and restore service before customer frustration peaks.
Security patches and feature improvements are non-negotiable, but so is reliability. Freeze updates, and you risk unpatched vulnerabilities. CX observability allows you to embrace unexpected change with safeguards.
The Wrap-Up
The Chrome incident proved there is no steady state in CCaaS operations and that Observability isn’t optional. Updates can arrive without warning, often beyond your control. Without the real-time actionable insights of CX observability, you are operating without a safety net. Blindly trusting apps like Chrome that have a great track record of reliability. Instead, you are relying on customers and end-users to let you know after it's too late, instead of being able to diagnose and resolve issues before they impact customer experience. With Operata’s CX observability, you’re always ready to pick up the call, no matter what changes lie ahead.
Until next time, and as always, hoo roo!
Sweet sounds of voice innovation
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