One Of Android 16's Most Annoying Bugs Is Finally Getting A Fix

It’s been nearly a week since Google rolled out the stable Android 16 build for Pixel devices. While the update brings a few cool features and has been mostly stable, it also introduces a couple of issues. Soon after Android 16 began rolling out, users reported the back navigation gesture becoming unresponsive. Earlier today, reports surfaced of Tap to Wake not working on some Google Pixel devices after updating to Android 16. Thankfully, Google seems to have fixed the former.

Earlier this week, multiple users noted that the back gesture had stopped working properly on some devices, leaving users with no choice but to restart their phones to restore functionality. There were also reports of the 3-button navigation bar freezing and not working correctly, particularly on Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 series devices. But it appears Google has found a fix.

Android 16’s broken back gesture is finally getting patched

Google reached out to Android Police co-founder Artem Russakovskii, confirming that the company has already fixed the bug affecting the back gesture. However, the update with the fix hasn’t rolled out yet. It appears Google will include the patch in the next Android 16 update.

While the issue doesn’t seem to be widespread, if you’re still facing it, restarting the device is currently the only workaround. Some users noted that the bug surfaces more often when using third-party launchers, and switching back to the Pixel Launcher might help. Still, it’s frustrating that Google has addressed the bug internally but hasn’t released the fix.

We don’t yet know when the next Android 16 update will arrive, but the best guess is sometime next month alongside the July security patch — meaning users might wait another two weeks for the fix to arrive. In addition to the back gesture issue, some users have also reported problems with scheduled dark/light mode not working, though Google has not yet commented on a fix for that.