Google announced today that it is pushing out a bug fixing update for Android Q Beta 2, in a very rare move.
This is a rare move because typically these betas or developer previews are very buggy and not to be used on daily drivers, and typically any issues that are broken in new versions, stay broken until the next beta. But evidently things were so broken in the second beta that Google had to rush to send out a bug fixing update before the third beta comes out at Google I/O next month.
Google, not surprisingly, has not mentioned what kind of bugs it is fixing with this patch. So you’ll have to download and install it, before you’ll know what has been changed. But it should fix some of the very laggy performance that users have been experiencing on the second beta. As expected, this is a pretty small patch, so it’s not going to take too long to actually update your phone. It also won’t be bringing any new features. It is plain and simple, a bug fixing update.
Android Q was released last month, as a beta for those using a Google Pixel smartphone. It was the first of six betas that we expect to see before Android Q goes official later this year. Google does these early betas for new versions of Android, so that it can get feedback and roll out a more stable build when it’s ready in August. It also allows developers to get their apps ready to go for when the new version of Android does launch. This means that there are less apps that are just plain broken when a new version rolls out. It also helps smartphone OEMs as they are able to get a hold of the code sooner and get it ready for their own smartphones. We have seen smartphone makers rolling out updates sooner, lately.
There is no official name for Android Q just yet, Google will usually announce that later this year, just before the stable version of Android Q is pushed out to everyone with a compatible device.
But we have never seen Google do a bug fix for a beta of a new version of Android. And it has been doing this for a few years now. The update is available now and everyone should get it in the next 24 hours. That alone should show you just how urgent of a bug fix that this really is. Considering most of the software updates roll out over weeks instead of just hours. Though this is also a much smaller group than a normal software update.
If you did roll back to Android Pie, you can sign up for the Android Beta Preview once again and get this updated version of Android Q on your smartphone. It won’t take long to go through. Or you can wait for the third beta – which we should see at Google I/O next month – and that should be even more stable than this bug fixing update.