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Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3 arrived on July 17, and Google’s now following that up with a Beta 3.1 release.
  • The full changelog mentions a ton of fixes.
  • If all goes to plan, Android 16 QPR1 should be ready to hit stable right on schedule, on September 3.

When it comes to Google hardware, August has arrived to usher in the latest lineup, and at this point we’re under a week away from the big Pixel 10 Made by Google event. But for as exciting as that is, we’re already looking forward to September, when it’s Google’s latest software that will be grabbing all our attention. That’s when we’re expecting Android 16 QPR1 to hit stable and have its rollout. But ahead of that day arriving, we’ve got what may be the final QPR1 beta to try out.

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It’s been almost a month now since Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3 arrived, and while we spotted a handful of changes that were incoming, like the magnified keyboard that first debuted on Android Canary, there weren’t a ton of user-facing tweaks that were new — just like we’d expect from a beta at this late stage, to be fair.

This afternoon, Google released Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3.1, a bug-fixing update on top of QPR1 Beta 3. The new build is labeled as BP31.250610.009 (.009.A1 for the Pixel Tablet), and just like previous releases, we’re seeing it for Pixel 6 and later models.

According to the QPR1 release notes page, Beta 3.1 includes fixes for the following issues:

  • Device instability or reboots related to Wi-Fi by improving how the system processes network statistics. (Issue #433037402, Issue #432867183, Issue #433418936, Issue #432795362, Issue #432770117, Issue #432699126, Issue #435489862, Issue #435011484)
  • The Context Hub, a low-power sensor component, would crash due to excessive use of main memory, causing device instability; resolved by optimizing memory allocation and preventing memory leaks. ( Issue #420999948, Issue #426316038)
  • The home screen sometimes lost its bottom row of pinned apps and the search bar, making them inaccessible; this was fixed by adjusting how these elements reappear after screen transitions. (Issue #428088033, Issue #428405658, Issue #429817851)
  • Notifications would overlap in the shade, hindering readability, by refining the notification display and dismissal animation logic. (Issue #421792538, Issue #422749237, Issue #420418750, Issue #428896474)
  • An issue that caused unexpected device restarts. (Issue #427676713)
  • The Quick Settings UI on unfolded foldable devices appeared clipped or misaligned due to incorrect padding caused by double-counting the camera cutout. (Issue #419184923, Issue #421879049, Issue #421810067, Issue #423172198, Issue #422560004, Issue #424116279)
  • An issue that caused devices to unexpectedly reboot. (Issue #408888279, Issue #409949346, Issue #409960197, Issue #410624610, Issue #407373090, Issue #430095518)
  • The status bar appearing in the Quick Settings shade was sometimes misaligned with the standard status bar, causing a visual inconsistency. (Issue #419573315, Issue #419134909, Issue #432794874)
  • Addressed a system hang or crash, particularly during unlock, caused by the camera’s Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) read getting stuck, by implementing a non-blocking method for sensor data retrieval. (Issue #421870862, Issue #420725698)
  • The media player on the lock screen would sometimes disappear or become unresponsive. (Issue #420517884)
  • An issue where the notification shade displayed a large, growing gap, obscuring notifications, by correcting how notification animations were clipped. (Issue #421366916)
  • An issue where the media player notification could appear clipped or disappear during device rotation, by improving how its display area is sized and updated in UI transitions. (Issue #433040374)
  • Video calls initiated from voice calls no longer experience muted audio; a system audio fix now correctly manages sound output during call type transitions. (Issue #434139133, Issue #427060263, Issue #438414975)
  • An issue where black translucent bars appeared at the top and bottom of the home screen after exiting full-screen apps by correcting how transient system bar states were cleared. (Issue #425407737, Issue #433929827)
  • An issue that caused the device to unexpectedly crash and restart during an OTA update.
  • An issue causing occasional device restarts after system updates.
  • Widgets on the home screen sometimes failed to load due to looking for outdated app files.
  • Typing occasionally stopped working in apps because internal input system processes could race.
  • Device crashes caused by the Context Hub running out of memory.
  • Bluetooth crashes and instability caused by an “Unimplemented Packet Type” error have been resolved.
  • [RG5][BD1A.250219.006]Unable to handle kernel paging request, PC is at edgetpu_kci_release_vmbox, LR is at edgetpu_kci_release_vmbox
  • An issue that could cause phone disconnections or system crashes during calls by resolving a memory corruption bug in audio data buffer handling related to audio playback speed changes.
  • A brief screen flicker happened when launching apps from the notification shade.
  • A system crash that could occur when using your device’s media features, especially when connected to a computer for media transfer, by improving the internal handling of media connection resources.

Users enrolled in the Android Beta for Pixel program should just sit tight at this point and wait for their updates to arrive via OTA notification. Considering this is just a point release, don’t expect to see any new features in this build.

This article was updated at 5:37 PM ET to add the official release notes for Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3.1.

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