Android 16 Beta 4.1 Drops Its Latest Bugfixes, As Development Starts Closing In On Stable
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android 16 Beta 4.1 delivers fixes for a handful of extant bugs.
- Beta 4 itself arrived back on April 17.
- With plans to hit stable in June, Google doesn’t have long left to finish prepping Android 16.
Earlier today, Google drew the curtain back on Material 3 Expressive, its latest design language revision that’s set to debut later this year following the stable release of Android 16. While we’re understandably a little bummed that we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to go hands-on with all the changes (despite the many early previews we’ve already seen), Google still has something new for us to check out today, as the company shares the latest point release of its Android 16 Beta.
It’s been just about one month since Google published Android 16 Beta 4 for Pixel devices in its testing program. Not only was this our second big Platform Stability release, bringing us that much closer to the day Android 16 stable would would be ready for business, but that was our first chance to try the software out with the new Pixel 9a.
Google has just released Android 16 Beta 4.1. If you were already testing Beta 4, just chill and wait for your update notification to arrive. Like other recent point releases, this one is all about bugfixes:
- Fixed an issue that impacted haptic performance (Issue #392319999)
- Fixed an issue that impacted 4k video recording at 4x telephoto (Issue #396804873)
- Fixed the weather map disappearing (Issue #407282089)
- Fixed lock screen shortcuts triggering with a single tap (Issue #403679494)
- Fixed an issue where the microphone indicator is stuck on (Issue #394002077)
- Fixed an issue where audio fails to play from the NDK (Issue #410960668)
- Fixed a constant battery drain issue (Issue #406421245)
- Fixed a black navigation bar appearing on transitions (Issue #411509161)
- Fixed a Google app crash when loading a website (Issue #415097836)
Haptics have been a real thorn in Google’s side with Android 16, and this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a patch attempting to set things right. The battery drain problem also sounds like an issue we’ve seen pop up in development before, so hopefully Google is getting to the bottom of things now.
With the Beta 3 cycle, it was only a matter of days between the initial release and the first 3.1 update, itself swiftly followed by 3.2. The fact that it took this long for Google to go from Beta 4 to 4.1 could easily suggest that we’re close to the end of the road when it comes to these fixes. With June right around the corner, Google doesn’t have long left to put all the finishing touches on Android 16.
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