Pixel 4 March update fixes face unlock bug, improves camera, and much more

In addition to the second Pixel Feature Drop, this month’s security patch addresses a number of user-facing bugs. Several of the March updates are exclusive to the Pixel 4, but the majority apply to all supported generations of Made by Google phones.

The smaller Pixel 4 gains “improvements” to the bottom speaker driver, while there are two camera fixes for both sizes. The first deals with the Camera app crashing when switching to video, while auto white balance has been improved in certain lighting scenarios. Autofocus sees similar improvements this month.

Face unlock is fast, but occasionally you’ll get stuck on the lockscreen after being successfully recognized — as indicated by the top lock icon. This bug has been addressed, along with incorrect translations in settings. Motion Sense’s visual feedback has been improved, while there’s a fix for USB accessories not being recognized.

Moving on from Pixel 4-specific fixes in this March update, other patches apply to the Pixel 2 and later. The system kernel has been updated for all three generations of devices. However, the most notable is Now Playing’s on-device recognition no longer picking up songs that you’re responsible for Casting to other devices.

All other fixes are as follows:

• Fix for certain app overlay elements stuck on home screen
• Fix for static noise during audio capture
• Improvements for Bluetooth connectivity with certain fitness tracker devices
• Improvements to autofocus in camera
• Improvements to animation for quick switch in gesture navigation
• [Pixel 3a/XL] Fix for undismissable emergency notifications
• Fix for broken live wallpapers on some devices
• Improvements to notification icon display in dark theme
• Clarified dark theme helper text in settings
• Fix for undismissable location access notification after emergency call
• Fix for corrupted video playback in certain apps while using Picture-in-Picture mode
• Improvements to 4k video playback performance
• [Pixel 3/XL, 3a/XL] Fix for corrupted video playback in certain apps after locking screen
• Fix for lost Wi-Fi network configurations