Pixel 6: more updates, more problems

Well, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of an update causing issues with a phone’s vibration motor. I don’t say it has never happened before, but it almost feels like Google is looking for other things to actively break with each update at this point when it comes to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.  A tad harsh? Maybe, but it would sure be nice if a software update could show up without any new, significant bugs for Google’s flagship phones.

Reported by The Verge, it seems the latest Pixel feature drop that arrived just a week ago for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro owners is causing issue with the intensity of the vibration motor on both of the phones being far too weak.  And before you think that isn’t that big of a deal, consider how often you’d miss phone calls and messages if your phone didn’t alert you when in your pocket.

While I wasn’t able to replicate this on my Pixel 6, there’s no way around the fact that many users are seeing issues as noted by The Verge, Droid Life, and Reddit (to name a few).  From my personal testing, it seems things are working normally on my Pixel 6, but that isn’t a wide-reaching test by any means.  If this many people are complaining, there’s likely a new bug at play in the Pixel 6 software.

On the other hand, if this is a feature that Google intended to alter, it feels like they simply missed the mark with it.  The problem for those affected is the fact that the haptics are now too weak and no amount of adjustments seem to help.  We’re hopeful that the outcry from users will simply see Google adjust things back to the way they were prior to the update.  Perhaps they could do that and set the default to a lighter level out of the box with the ability for the user to increase things if they so choose: assuming lighter default haptics was what they were going for.  For now, Google has not officially acknowledged this as a bug or as a feature, so it is a bit unclear how things will move forward at this point, but we are keeping an eye on this one.