Release notes

Android 17 QPR 2 Beta 6.1 (September 2026)

Building on the initial release of Android 17, we continue to update the platform with fixes and improvements that are then rolled out to supported devices. These releases happen on a quarterly cadence through Quarterly Platform Releases (QPRs), which are delivered both to AOSP and to Google Pixel devices as part of Feature Drops.

Although these updates don't include app-impacting API changes, we provide images of the latest QPR beta builds so you can test your app with these builds as needed (for example, if there are upcoming features that might impact the user experience of your app).

Android 17 QPR2 includes a minor SDK release. This incremental update has no planned behavior changes, minimizing the need for compatibility testing. You can the current SDK changes in the API diff report.

Known issue in Beta 6.1

Pixel 11 Pro Fold users may have to re-enroll Face Unlock.

Hardening against call forwarding fraud

Android 17 QPR2 introduces new security restrictions on programmatic call forwarding to protect users from fraud. The system now parses and selectively restricts call-forwarding USSD codes (such as *21#) executed using the TelephonyManager.sendUssdRequest() API.

• API Restriction: The sendUssdRequest() API is no longer accessible for call-forwarding codes using only the CALL_PHONE permission. Standard apps attempting to execute these codes in the background will be blocked and receive a USSD_ERROR_NOT_ALLOWED callback.
• System Confirmation: To combat social engineering scams, users manually dialing call-forwarding codes in the system dialer will now see a new OS-level confirmation dialog before the command is executed.
• Non-Call Forwarding USSD: Non-call forwarding enabling USSD requests (such as mobile money transfers and account checks) are unaffected by this change.
• Mitigation: If your app is affected, verify that it handles the USSD_ERROR_NOT_ALLOWED failure callback gracefully. For apps requiring call-forwarding setup that don't qualify for an exempted role, migrate your flow to use the ACTION_DIAL intent to pre-fill the dialer, allowing the user to manually confirm the action.

Optimized delivery of self-broadcasts

On devices running Android 17 QPR2 or higher, Android delivers self-broadcasts more efficiently to improve system health. A self-broadcast is a broadcast (for example, one sent with sendBroadcast()) for which all of the receivers, whether context-registered or declared in the manifest, run in the same process that sent the broadcast. If any receiver runs in a different process, the broadcast isn't a self-broadcast. The system hands self-broadcasts back to the sending process, which delivers them to its own receivers on the main thread. This prevents apps from keeping themselves running in the background by repeatedly sending broadcasts to themselves. This change applies to all apps, regardless of their targetSdkVersion.

This change affects your app in the following ways:

• Sending a self-broadcast doesn't raise your process's importance and doesn't prevent a cached process from being frozen.

• If your process is cached and frozen, self-broadcasts that it sent wait until the process is unfrozen, for example, when the user returns to the app or another component of the app starts.

• Self-broadcasts that haven't been delivered yet are held in the process's memory. If the system kills the process before they're delivered, they're lost and aren't redelivered.

Broadcasts that have a receiver in a different process (including another process of the same app), broadcasts sent on behalf of another app (such as through a PendingIntent), and broadcasts sent to a different user profile aren't affected.

Make sure your app doesn't rely on self-broadcasts to do work in the background. Don't use self-broadcasts as a timer or keep-alive mechanism. To schedule background work, use WorkManager, or use AlarmManager for work that must happen at a specific time. For communication within a process, use direct calls such as callbacks or Kotlin flows instead of broadcasts.

Top Issues fixed in Beta 6 (September 2026)

• A visual regression causing letterboxed content to leak through the status bar during activity transitions. (Issue #493438057)
• The screensaver displays a blank screen while charging. (Issue #516262713, Issue #526560397)
• Unexpected device reboots on Pixel 9 Pro Fold when initializing the camera viewfinder in third-party applications. (Issue #555960820, Issue #558564487, Issue #554763027, Issue #559421409)
• Locked applications could not be dismissed using swipe gestures in Recents. (Issue #555579953)
• A system kernel crash causing devices to unexpectedly reboot when third-party applications requested simultaneous camera and microphone access during biometric identity verification. (Issue #557712189)
• An issue that caused device crashes, reboots, or hangs when scrolling. (Issue #559054323)

Top Issues fixed in Beta 5 (September 2026)

• Changing a Bluetooth device type in settings failed to update its icon visually. (Issue #516071134)
• A system stability issue that caused unexpected device reboots during continuous UI scrolling in media-heavy applications. (Issue #544291113)
• Pressing hardware volume buttons while casting media prevented the system volume slider UI from displaying. (Issue #548145018)
• Fixed a text-rendering issue that caused unexpected background highlights to appear when typing in search fields, and resolved a navigation routing issue that prevented Private Space from unlocking correctly. (Issue #548285596)
• Enhanced HDR mode remained enabled despite being turned off in user settings. (Issue #547457910)
• Launching Google Wallet via the power button shortcut caused the touchscreen to become unresponsive. (Issue #549758084)
• Camera crashes during panorama processing. (Issue #551069625)
• Bluetooth audio experiences noise and distortion after completing or answering a call. (Issue #541684282)

Top Issues fixed in Beta 4 (August 2026)

• Enabling the "render apps below the cutout area" developer setting caused a transparent status bar on the launcher after exiting fullscreen video playback. (Issue #295747911)
• A thermal management issue that caused devices to overheat and unexpectedly reboot during use. (Issue #437116407)
• An issue preventing screen mirroring to external USB-C XR glasses. (Issue #439269938)
• Gesture navigation became unresponsive when rendering apps below the display cutout. (Issue #441378954)
• The 80% battery limit optimization caused excessive charge times during the final 2% threshold. (Issue #477009501, Issue #476803337)
• A launcher UI issue where searching for apps in the app drawer failed to process text input. (Issue #505157934, Issue #527921034, Issue #530531588, Issue #537704656)
• Invoking the power menu via hardware buttons caused a missing background blur effect behind the navigation bar. (Issue #537202501)
• An issue where phone call audio defaulted to the phone speaker instead of connected Bluetooth devices. (Issue #537908014, Issue #541501134, Issue #541772860, Issue #545047074)
• A Recents app switcher rendering bug where the first task card could intermittently freeze and visually clip behind other apps during horizontal scrolling. (Issue #530484511, Issue #505564040, Issue #545574713, Issue #551022006)
• An audio service resource lock triggered during screen recording that prevented microphone usage across apps and input methods like Gboard and Gemini until a device restart. (Issue #538229807)
• A System UI visual inconsistency where turning off the screen from the home screen triggered a plain fade instead of the power-button screen-off animation. (Issue #541261786)
• A low-contrast rendering issue in dark mode where the connected Wi-Fi settings cog icon was barely visible. (Issue #536320341)
• Enabling 3D mode on connected smart glasses resulted in a blank screen. (Issue #536628506)
• A User Interface issue that prevented the notification bar from being pulled all the way down. (Issue #539244095, Issue #547801203, Issue #547017781, Issue #546896889, Issue #547163658, Issue #547281675)
• An issue where WebGL applications could freeze or crash the browser process when combining shadow maps with vertex color attributes by resolving an invalid memory read in the PowerVR GPU driver's texture state processing. (Issue #541322087)
• Low-light Face Unlock failures bypassed Fingerprint Unlock and forced PIN entry. (Issue #547597971, Issue #545329611, Issue #541723970)

Top Issues fixed in Beta 3 (August 2026)

• Opening the notification shade and Quick Settings menu caused visual corruption and an unexpected device restart. (Issue #535249652, Issue #543124160)
• The Device Health and Support tool erroneously displayed false battery capacity degradation warnings to users. (Issue #535421490, Issue #538943170, Issue #535504630)

Top Issues fixed in Beta 1 (July 2026)

• Bluetooth re-pairing fails silently following a remote bond loss. (Issue #412524057)
• Media player controls briefly flashed on the lock screen upon waking the device despite the app's notifications being disabled. (Issue #484607701)
• A system crash causing Pixel devices to unexpectedly reboot when invoking Gemini. (Issue #505750489)
• Initiating a drag-and-drop gesture with multiple fingers caused the source application to stop receiving subsequent touch events. (Issue #516836306)
• Notifications randomly became invisible in the notification shade until a system restart. (Issue #526139207, Issue #522657034)
• ML-DSA key generation fails with an exception when using the "NONE" string digest instead of the class constant. (Issue #525612735)
• An issue in AccessibilityNodeInfo.toString() where window bounds were incorrectly logged using screen bounds, which caused misleading accessibility debugging data. (Issue #520428442)
• Window-level UI blur effects failed to render and the "Allow window-level blurs" developer toggle reset after rebooting. (Issue #527376569)