Google has released a patch for the Android 11 Beta that it launched last week, and this is Android 11 Beta 1.5.
This is a pretty small update to the beta, and it fixes a few bugs that were really urgent and required another patch before the second beta launched next month.
Google Pay now works properly
Among the issues that Google fixed, Google Pay is one of them. Typically on the first beta, Google Pay does not work. And this is partly due to the fact that there are lots of bugs, and security checks that Google Pay needs to pass. But seeing Google fix this so quickly is quite surprising actually.
Other fixes in this update include fixing a bug that was causing full reboots when you used gesture navigation to switch apps in different orientations. An eSIM issue on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a series. As well as Bluetooth pairing. Google didn’t go into detail on the Bluetooth pairing issue, but it should make pairing a lot easier.
Available for Pixel 2 and newer
Android 11 Beta 1.5 is available for the Pixel 2 and newer. That includes the Pixel 3, Pixel 3a and Pixel 4. And the factory images are already available. OTA files are not yet available, though that will likely happen fairly soon.
If you are already in the Public Beta, you should get an Over-the-air update for Beta 1.5 very soon. Google is usually pretty quick about pushing these smaller patches out to devices.
This isn’t the first time that Google has had to push out an emergency update to a new build of Android. Just about every developer preview came with a small patch about a week after it launched, this year. So it almost seems like the new normal for Google. But at least these bugs are getting squashed instead of sticking around until the final build comes out in September.
Keep in mind that this is still a beta, so it’s not wise to put it on your daily driver unless you’re okay with dealing with the bugs. As this is still pretty buggy, and people are still having plenty of issues with the update. So do keep that in mind before you jump onto the beta. But if you do want to jump onto the beta, you can do so by signing up here. You’ll be able to opt-in for the device that you want to install it on, and you’ll get the update pretty soon after.