Hello everyone and welcome to the channel. Yesterday, Google released Android 16 beta 4.1. I expected this update to show us some of the features they revealed in the Android show, but unfortunately it looks exactly the same as the previous one. So, let's find out what's new. Let's start with the build number and the update size. Here I have PP22.250325.012 012 and the update size was about 49 MGB.
As expected, this update doesn't include any new features. So, I will take the opportunity to talk about some of the new changes I noticed after using Android 16 for a very long time and never mentioned in my previous videos. Let's start with the haptic feedback. By chance, I came across a new haptic feedback that take place when you expand the volume controls panel. But keep in mind, it's buggy and doesn't work all the time. I also found that this feature is part of beta 4 but not the previous versions. In contrast, there is a very small difference I noticed between beta 4 and 4.1. When you tap on the Google lens icon, as you see, it takes you to the camera preview right away. While now it takes you to the gallery. When you take a look, you will see that both are exactly the same, but the behavior is different.
Another thing started to suddenly show on Android 16 is the live notification when you use Gemini Live. So let me show you how it looks. So when you start Gemini Live and then go back to the home screen. We used to have this chip or this panel to hang up or hold. But now when you dismiss it, you will see a chip in the status bar with the timer and the Gemini icon. Tapping on it, it will take you back to Gemini Live.
If you reached this point of the video, it's worth checking the channel's wallpapers by in-depth thick reviews app. You will find a lot of greatl looking wallpapers to choose from with a separate editing panel for the lock and home screens to give you more control over the look of each one. You will find Google Play Store download link in the description. So, that's it when it comes to the new features. Now, let's talk about the bug fixes that come with this build.
And the first one is fix for an issue that impacted haptic performance. When you tap on the issue number, you will get more details. It says here, "The haptics feel too strong and unrefined, sometimes tiny." Calibration was much better in Android 15 on this device. Some people were impacted by weird haptic feedback performance, and I got a lot of comments about this issue in one of the betas. I don't exactly remember which one, but if you are impacted by this issue, it should be fixed with beta 4.1.
The second one is a fix for an issue that impacted 4K video recording at 4x telephoto. So, if you have a Pixel with a 4x telephoto, like the 6 Pro, for example, some people reported that the video stops recording when set to 4K 30fps after a few seconds. This issue is now fixed with beta 4.1. Then we have another fix for the weather map disappearing. So, some people reported that the weather map disappear inside the Pixel Weather app, which is no longer the case with this build. Then, we got a fix for the lock screen shortcuts triggering with a single tap.
I got a lot of comments on one of my previous videos about Android 16 that the lock screen shortcuts immediately trigger the action without giving this haptic feedback or requiring any long press, which leads to unintentional actions. But now, this issue is fixed with beta 4.1. The next one is a fix for an issue where the microphone indicator is stuck on and as per the issue description, the microphone dot at the top right corner stays active all the time even though there is no app using the microphone.
Then we have a fix for an issue where audio fails to play from the NDK or native development kit of Android. Then we have a fix for a constant battery drain issue. When you take a look at the details of this one, you will see that someone using the 9 Pro XL reported a battery drain issue that should be fixed in beta 4.1. Then we have a fix for a black navigation bar appearing on transitions and finally fix the Google app crash when loading a website. So that's it when it comes to the bug fixes. But there is one major bug with this build that's worth mentioning. When I plug my phone to a fast charger, the charging speed is very slow.
As if I'm connecting it to a USBA port on my PC. It takes ages to charge. I'm not sure if this is something temporary or not, but I tried multiple times and my charging speed is very slow after installing beta 4.1. On top of this, I experienced some issues with Android 16 that I reported few times before, but they are still here. The first one is related to the quick settings. You will notice here that the edit button is not in a white color, which makes it harder to see.
And same as the text at the top. And when you scroll all the way down, you will see this weird look. When it comes to the clock, even though my phone is in light theme, but the editing page is stuck on dark theme. One more thing I noticed when you play a video on YouTube and swipe up to expand. You will notice here there is a black bar that appears at the bottom of the screen, which looks really bad. And when you use the monochrome color palette under the wallpaper and the style app, you will no longer see the battery percentage in the widget because the text color matches the background.
And now when I go to the settings and then security and the privacy, then device unlock, then fingerprint unlock, then fingerprint unlock again, I no longer see the option to activate the fingerprint unlock on the always on display. Now, let's end this video by talking about the performance, stability, and battery. Overall, I don't think that this build is great. It's a little bit glitchy, and I came across some temporary bugs that are now gone, but they keep happening every now and then. For example, after unlocking the private space, the phone scrolls back to the top on its own, but as you see, it's not happening now. Then, I made a phone call while having the do not disturb activated, and I couldn't see the call chip to be able to hang up the call. I had to turn off do not disturb to be able to achieve this and some weird things like this. And when it comes to the Geekbench score, it's within the same average like the previous builds except for the first time I ran the test after installing beta 4.1. I got a very low multi-core score number of 3800, but it fixed itself in the second time.
And when it comes to the battery, as you saw, I started to film this video at 1057 with 37% battery. And now I'm at 20%. And the time is 12:58. So I lost 16% in 2 hours, which is not bad. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, the charging speed is very slow after installing this build, and I'm not sure if it's going to fix itself or not. So that's pretty much it for today. That's everything you need to know about Android 16 beta 4.1. Please let me know in the comments your experience with this build. Do you have a better experience or worse like in my case? But for now, thanks so much for watching and see you in the next.
