Google Issues the April Pixel Update

Google today delivered the Pixel Update for April 2022, and it looks like Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro users won’t have to wait to get it for a change.

“We have provided the monthly software update for April 2022,” the Google Pixel Support Team writes in a new post to the Pixel Phone Help support site. “All supported Pixel devices running Android 12 will receive these software updates starting today. The rollout will continue over the next week in phases depending on carrier and device. Users will receive a notification once the OTA becomes available for their device. We encourage you to check your Android version and update to receive the latest software.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Changes and fixes in this release include:

Battery and power. Additional improvements for wireless charging performance with certain accessories on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro only.

Camera. A fix for an issue causing front-facing camera preview in certain apps to appear zoomed in, and a fix for an issue occasionally causing a green screen to appear in camera preview, both on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro only.

User interface. Here, Google has delivered several updates for all supported Pixels, including:

  • Fix for a crash in System UI while using apps in Picture-in-Picture (PIP) mode in certain conditions.
  • Fix for issue causing an error message to display when setting up certain live wallpapers.\
  • Fix for issue causing notification shade and Quick Settings to appear invisible after changing wallpaper in certain conditions.
  • Fix for issue occasionally causing an animation to display incorrectly when canceling a search in the app drawer.
  • Fix for issue occasionally preventing navigation in overview screen while TalkBack is active.
  • Fix for issue occasionally preventing recents button to show the overview while using 3-button navigation with third-party launchers.
  • This month’s Android security fixes.

Supported Pixels include the Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 5a (5G), Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 17 comments

  • djross95

    Premium Member
    04 April, 2022 - 3:24 pm

    <p>I’m curious, have you noticed a difference in your Pixel 6 Pro after the last couple of months of software updates from Google? Thanks!</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      04 April, 2022 - 4:44 pm

      <p>No. The fingerprint reader is as unreliable as ever.</p>

      • richfrantz

        Premium Member
        04 April, 2022 - 5:18 pm

        <p>Curious, could it be your print? Does your thumb ride your dogs leash for instance. My print is worthless when I swim or do yardwork. </p>

        • rob_segal

          Premium Member
          04 April, 2022 - 10:14 pm

          <p>Other users have issues with the Pixel 6 Pro fingerprint scanner. When I first read about this problem, I thought Google may have used a small ultrasonic fingerprint scanner similar to the one on the Galaxy Note 10 series and other Samsung Galaxies of that generation. This isn’t the case though. Google has an optical scanner. OnePlus uses an optical scanner and that works excellently. This is a problem I don’t expect Google will fix on this phone. They may have to add software facial recognition to work around this.</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          05 April, 2022 - 8:47 am

          This is something many, many people experience. The issue is the sensor, not me.

          • dftf

            06 April, 2022 - 5:30 am

            <p>And yet you go to the Pixel6 area on <em>Reddit</em> and whenever someone reports an issue, they are downvoted to oblivion and all the comments are to the effect of "Pixel 6 here, works great, flawless, no issues".</p><p><br></p><p>I suspect <em>Google</em> had a bad-batch of <em>Tensor</em> chips during production and just decided to ship them regardless. As I cannot otherwise see why there are such disparities between people’s experiences with the same device!</p>

      • djross95

        Premium Member
        04 April, 2022 - 7:02 pm

        <p>Wow, disappointing…</p>

  • dftf

    04 April, 2022 - 3:28 pm

    <p>20.77MB here on a <em>Pixel 3a</em></p><p><br></p><p>Annoying in the Release Notes you linked to that they haven’t addressed the widely-reported issue (affecting all <em>Pixels</em>) where the "recent-apps list" / "task-switcher" sometimes jumps to the app you were last in, rather than the current one, causing users to close-off or screenshot the wrong one.</p><p><br></p><p>They also haven’t fixed how the Split-View mode breaks if you have "Remove animations" turned-on.</p><p><br></p><p>And also no option to disable the new "minimise app" animation, introduced either last-month or February, where when you return to your homescreen, the app you are in shrinks-down into the homescreen icon.</p><p><br></p><p>Be nice if some of these were addressed next-month, in the final update for the 3a, but I’m not holding-my-breath…</p>

  • ontariopundit

    04 April, 2022 - 6:56 pm

    <p>Recently I upgraded from a Pixel 2 to a 4 because it would cost way more to replace the battery than the phone was worth and almost double what Apple itself charges to replace the battery in a similar vintage iPhone 8 (which, to add insult to injury, is still receiving updates while the Pixel 2, bootloader locked even though it’s from Google and not VZW, has been frozen in time with numerous OS bugs which will never be fixed).</p><p><br></p><p>I am amazed by how beta quality the operating system is on the show case Pixel line of phones. I’m finding constant interface mistakes and even the odd app crash.</p><p><br></p><p>The new notifications are AWFUL compared to what was on the Pixel 2. The loss of a fingerprint reader is huge. Face unlock is plain annoying. I’ve never tried Apple’s but this is just poor. No wonder Google went back to a fingerprint reader in newer Pixels.</p><p><br></p><p>The only improvement is the gesture system. On the Pixel 2 it was obviously unfinished. On the 4 it’s not quite as crude but still not particularly well executed.</p><p><br></p><p>Ultimately, I buy Pixels because I like the pictures they take.</p><p><br></p><p>What boggles my mind is that people pay so much money for new phones that are ultimately disposable because it costs more to replace their batteries than the hardware is worth after three or four years. And, the risk of breaking the phone after a repair is too great to warrant the risk of the battery replacement. I’m not a fan of the iPhone interface but if I had to buy a phone for the long term I’d only ever consider the iPhone. At least Apple provides competitively priced battery replacements from a reputable store and support their phones beyond the point where they’re obsolete because their SoCs are too slow to run modern software.</p>

    • djross95

      Premium Member
      04 April, 2022 - 7:06 pm

      <p>I ended up going with a Samsung S21 FE to replace my Pixel 4a 5G. Bought it at Best Buy for $275 net after trade-in from T-Mobile. It’s a stellar phone for that price after you wrestle the Samsung bloatware to the ground (takes about 3 hrs). The hardware is fabulous and so is the value. Google makes great cameras, but their hardware record is mediocre at best. </p>

      • crunchyfrog

        05 April, 2022 - 8:42 am

        <p>You can’t go wrong with a Samsung phone, they are really the gold standard for Android phones in the U.S. A family member of mine wanted to upgrade from a Galaxy S8 and was looking at a Pixel 6 after seeing TV commercials but I steered them back into a Galaxy S22 and I think that’s the best choice right now.</p>

  • BudTugglie

    05 April, 2022 - 8:58 am

    <p>Still no ability to ‘select all’ in mail. Cleaning up a folder requires hundreds of individual selects to messages, unless I’m missing something. I know users of Gmail can do it on the web interface, but I don’t use a Gmail address.</p>

    • dftf

      06 April, 2022 - 5:33 am

      <p>A "select all" is generally not wise to offer, as more-often users accidentally delete all e-mails in a folder (such as their <em>Sent Items</em>) and struggle to get them back. Often more trouble than it’s worth to offer it.</p><p><br></p><p>If you regularly have to delete all e-mails in a particular folder, why not either just unsubscribe to those e-mails, or setup a rule to either delete them for you, or move them into the <em>Junk</em> (aka <em>Spam</em>) folder, or <em>Deleted Items</em> (aka <em>Trash</em>) folder, where "delete all" is usually an option?</p>

  • BudTugglie

    06 April, 2022 - 10:24 am

    <p>I’d be interested in you telling me how to set up a rule that decided which of my daily 100+ emails is junk and which are important.</p><p><br></p><p>I don’t buy your statement that "select all" accidental causes accidental deletes. I’d think that trying to individually select and delete hundreds of messages is more error prone. Besides, Google offers "select all" on their web interface for messages sent to gmail accounts.</p>

    • dftf

      07 April, 2022 - 12:51 pm

      <p>I’m not going to guide you through step-by-step, I’m sure you could use <em>Google </em>for yourself to find an article, or even go on <em>YouTube</em> and find a video of someone showing how to do it!</p><p><br></p><p>But if you constantly get e-mails that are junk, why not report them as-such and they should eventually go straight to your junk or spam folder?</p><p><strong>support.google.com/mail/answer/1366858</strong></p><p><br></p><p>You can create filters on the website version of GMail, but as the rules are processed on the server-side, you will see the same changes apply in the app versions. Explains about using rules here:</p><p><strong>support.google.com/mail/answer/6579</strong></p><p><br></p><p>And info on blocking e-mails, or reporting ones as spam:</p><p><strong>support.google.com/mail/answer/8151</strong></p>

      • BudTugglie

        08 April, 2022 - 9:30 am

        <p>These assume that one has a gmail address. I do not. If I did, I could "select all" and delete using the web interface, and would not have to create hundreds of rules.</p>

        • dftf

          08 April, 2022 - 6:39 pm

          <p>Apologies, I misread your original post and thought you did have a Gmail account.</p><p><br></p><p>Regardless, you can also setup rules in the website versions of other popular services, such as <em>Outlook </em>and <em>Yahoo! Mail</em> also. You might be out-of-luck if you use an obscure e-mail provider though, like one provided by your ISP with your Internet-service.</p><p><br></p><p>I’m still confused as to your use-case though for regularly needing "select-all". I’m assuming <em>either</em> you delete junk e-mails out of your <em>Inbox</em> folder, then do "select all" to then move all the good e-mails to a different folder. Or that you do the reverse, and move-out all the good e-mails, then do select-all and delete-out all the bad ones?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC