Where is Google’s August Update for Pixel Phones? (Updated)

Pixel 6 Pro

You may be wondering where the August update is for your Google Pixel phone, since yesterday was the first Monday of the month and related security bulletins were posted. For reasons not yet clear, Google didn’t take the additional step of also releasing factory image or OTA files for all of the still-supported Pixel phones, nor did they push an over-the-air-update. That’s unusual.

We’ve reached to Google to see if we can get some answers, but for now, this is what we know about the August Google Pixel update.

Yesterday, Google posted the August security bulletins for both Pixel phones and the Android platform on time, as they always do. They even posted a special Android 13 bulletin to talk about Android 13’s potential September launch and the default level of security patch it will have. But again, they didn’t give us August files or push an update to phones, plus their usual Pixel community post that would detail such an update never arrived. Something is up.

I know that no one follows your boy on Twitter, but I pointed out yesterday that things seemed off. The oddest part of yesterday was in the afternoon, when Verizon updated its support pages for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, suggesting they were getting an update, just not an August update. Instead, Verizon believes the Pixel 6 line will see another July patch with a slightly updated build of SQ3A.220705.003.A3. The previous July build was SQ3A.220705.003.A1.

I should also point out that Verizon didn’t update any of its other Pixel phone pages as if the Pixel 6 line is the only pair of phones getting this small update.

That’s not something we typically see and we’d love an explanation for why Verizon believes that, as well as why no update arrived yesterday. It could be nothing major and that Google will drop files on us today or it could also be that Google is skipping August’s patch in preparation for Android 13’s release.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more or if we hear back from Google.

  • UPDATE: Google has now posted two new Pixel 6 July builds, including the ones that Verizon first revealed. We have builds of SQ3A.220705.003.A3 (Verizon) and SQ3A.220705.004.A1 (Softbank) for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. No other Pixel phones received new July updates.

This post was last modified on August 2, 2022 10:14 am