Sticking to its almost-a-month release cadence cycle, Google has seeded the third Android 16 QPR2 beta to compatible Pixel users on the Android beta program. With Android 16’s next big Feature Drop set to go live in December, the third beta focuses heavily on bug fixes.
Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 introduced custom app icon shapes, building on the other minor visual changes the first beta introduced. Another notable change included reduced CPU usage during garbage collection and step tracking support in Health Connect.
With the third Android 16 QPR beta, Google is now taking care of many of the reported bugs. The lengthy changelog lists fixes for several notable issues, including Google Play System updates failing for some users, broken Wi-Fi 7 support for Pixel users in New Zealand, display freezes, and more.
Unless Pixel users discover some major underlying bugs, this is likely the last QPR2 beta before its public release in December.
Find the full release notes of Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 below:
- Google Play System Updates were failing to install for some users
- Home screen shortcuts appeared as blank gray circles
- The Wallet icon on your lockscreen could sometimes appear with incorrect coloring
- Battery charged to 100% when adaptive charging is turned on
- The swipe-up gesture from the bottom occasionally stopped working
- Your selected theme might not apply on the first attempt
- 50MP images captured with the ultrawide or telephoto lens displayed rainbow artifacts
- Poor battery life due to excessive CPU usage by the launcher, particularly on foldable devices
- Calls could incorrectly route Bluetooth audio
- Users in New Zealand could not access all 6GHz Wi-Fi networks
- The Terminal app would crash if you changed your device’s UI font size while it was open
- Users couldn’t type special characters like `*`, `@`, or `#` in the GUI terminal
- Simultaneously swiping lockscreen widgets and the notification shade caused buggy animations and a laggy, unresponsive UI
- The screen sometimes became unresponsive or froze when unlocking the device
- Display freezes and screen noise
- Unexpected device crashes and reboots
Depending on your device, the Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 OTA update weighs in at roughly 500–600MB.
No GPU driver update for Pixel 10
Unfortunately, if you were hoping Google would include an updated GPU driver for the Pixel 10 with Android 16 QPR2 to address its performance issues, there’s bad news for you. The third beta still ships with the same old GPU driver, suggesting Google may not plan to update it at all.
If you have desktop mode enabled on your Pixel running Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, make sure to turn it off before installing the third beta. There are user reports on Reddit about the new build failing to install or soft-bricking their device with the desktop experience feature enabled.
Make sure to enroll your Pixel into the Android Beta Program to install the latest QPR2 beta. And if your device is already a part of the program but the OTA is not showing up for download, you can manually sideload the build by grabbing the necessary images from the Android developer portal.
