MobileNews

Android 12 seemingly returns to stability in third beta release, but w/ some minor issues [Updated]

The first Android 12 Beta worked out relatively well. There were no major bugs to speak of outside of one that prevented users from accessing the power menu easily. With Google Pay functional, it seems as though there were no major reasons to skip. After a second beta released caused many issues, though, you’d be justified in being wary of the third. Luckily, Android 12 Beta 3 bugs appear to be rare.

Stability seems to have largely returned

Our last update to this article alongside the Beta 2 release found that, for some reason, things had pretty much fallen apart behind the scenes. Apps were crashing left and right, installation errors were plaguing many, and there were just far more bugs than we’d seen in any previous Android 12 release.

Luckily, this doesn’t appear to be the case in Android 12 Beta 3, as the update seems to be fairly stable in our testing so far. No one on the 9to5Google team, regardless of device, has reported any major issues. Everything we’ve encountered so far seems to just be minor issues that don’t impede daily usage. Take that with a grain of salt, of course, as the beta has only been available for about 5 hours at this point.

Installation time still takes a while

While installations aren’t failing this time around like they were on beta 2, the latest Android 12 release is still taking its sweet time to fully install. Whether using an OTA file to manually sideload the update or installing it on-device using the beta program, expect it to take a while for the update to finish its installation completely.

UI errors

In some parts of the OS, we’re currently seeing some UI rendering issues. This seems to only be a problem with dark mode and, when it strikes, it leaves some text boxes essentially unreadable. It’s a fairly minor issue that only seems to be affecting the Settings app in certain areas, but it’s something we definitely hope Google will patch in the next release.

Another odd UI error we’re seeing on multiple devices is in the app drawer, where the Google Search box is rendering as a rectangle. This is, again, a minor issue and based on our findings seems to be tied to the on-device search features Google is in the process of adding.

We also spotted a weird issue that caused a double volume slider when adjusting call volume, but little UI bugs like this are to be expected in beta releases, and nothing we’ve seen so far breaks anything beyond usability in Android 12.

So far, so good

We can’t guarantee you’ll have a flawless experience on Android 12 Beta 3, but in early testing, stability seems as solid as you’d hope and bugs are few and far in between. You should always be ready for problems when using software that isn’t technically finished, but if you’re just dying to try out the new OS, Beta 3 seems like as good of a time as any to get in on the fun.


Are you having issues or noticing bugs in the Android 12 Beta on your Pixel? Drop a comment below and let us know. We’ll continue to update this article with other bugs that seem widespread as the betas drop over the coming months.

What’s new in Android 12:

Android 12 Beta 3:

Android 12 Beta 2:

Android 12 Beta 1:

Android 12 DP3:

Android 12 DP2:

Android 12 DP1:

Abner Li, Damien Wilde, Kyle Bradshaw, and Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.


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Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google

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