If you’re one of the many Pixel 6 or 6 Pro owners strongly considering turning your back on Google due to the countless bugs left unfixed for months or all the new issues popping up at every corner, odds are that the latest routine security update will… not change your mind.
Far less exciting and feature-packed than what the two fall 2021-released stock Android phones received just last month, this is obviously rolling out as we speak to the Pixel 4, 4 XL, 4a, 4a (5G), 5, and 5a (5G) in addition to the Tensor-powered Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.
The only actual new feature delivered to the latter high-end duo is apparently a VoLTE improvement on “certain networks” in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions, which some users on “certain” other networks in other markets already received with the June update.
That means security is the key focus area of this… monthly security update, with a grand total of 33 (!!!) vulnerabilities affecting departments as diverse as “MediaTek components”, “Unisoc components”, “Qualcomm components”, “Qualcomm closed-source components”, device framework, system, and Google Play system updates now being a thing of the past.
While a few of these are listed with a “critical” severity level and a bunch more were considered “high”-risk threats prior to their mitigation, there’s no word on actual exploitation in the wild leading to loss of personal data or remote code execution of any sort.
It goes without saying that you should absolutely install these fresh security patches on your eligible devices as soon as possible to remain protected in the face of all threats, and perhaps more importantly, to get ready for Android 13. That’s right, your next major OS promotion is just around the corner, and we highly doubt Google will issue any other general security or specific bug fixes, let alone all-new features, before Android 13 officially rolls out in (theoretically) stable form.
