Android 16 Beta 2.1 simply landed to check in your Pixel

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

TL; Dr

Google released Android 16 Beta 2 two weeks ago, with some new functionality on board.
Today Google follows that up with Android 16 Beta 2.1, consisting mostly of bug fixes
Beta 3 has already been rumored for a possible March 12 release.

At this point, we’re just a few months away from Android 16 being ready for its stable release, but until we get to that day, there’s still plenty of testing left to do. Two weeks ago, Google dropped its last Android 16 update, with Beta 2 delivering tweaks like improved HDR support and some quality-of-life enhancements for measurement units. Now Google’s already back with another one, releasing Android 16 Beta 2.1, replete with bug fixes.

Google shares that Beta 2.1 is a minor update over Beta 2 (as if you couldn’t tell by that decimal point), and the focus here is primarily on just stamping out some of the more noxious bugs that have been plaguing Android 16 Beta 2 testers. In fact, Google’s complete changelog for this release only consists of three main points, and one catch-all:

Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented devices from entering Doze mode. (Issue #396603519)
Fixed issues that caused some animations to appear choppy while configuring live wallpapers. (Issue #397659072)
Fixed an issue that sometimes caused devices to reboot unexpectedly. (Issue #396541565)
Fixed various other issues that were impacting system stability, connectivity, and performance.

Admittedly, your phone rebooting when you don’t want it to is pretty bad, so we’re pleased to see Google handle this one even ahead of its planned Beta 3 release. The Doze issue definitely sounds annoying, granted, and could easily mess up your battery life, but the choppy animations probably could have waited.

That said, we’re always happy to try out a new Android build, even if we haven’t been running into a lot of bugs ourselves. Anyone interested in today’s update is almost certainly already running Android 16 Beta 2 on their Pixel phones, and in that case — just sit tight, and wait for it to come to you. Google’s got an OTA update headed your way soon that will bump you up to 2.1 territory.

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