Everyone Thinks Android 14 QPR2 Installed Faster Than Usual on Pixel Devices

Something happened yesterday after clicking the download button for the Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 update on both my Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 Pro – both installed noticeably quicker than usual. Apparently, I’m not alone in noticing this and it wasn’t just my mind or the phones playing tricks on me.

I was cruising through the android_beta subreddit yesterday shortly after the QPR2 Beta 1 dropped and noticed a thread had started where a couple of folks were talking about the update installing “super fast.” I checked back on it this morning and it has grown, with a couple of dozen folks seemingly confirming that the update was indeed speedier than usual.

As you all know, the “optimizing apps” page on a Pixel phone can be agonizing during an update. It takes forever, sometimes up to an hour or more to complete, leaving your phone hot, working too hard, and in a state of pause because you aren’t sure if or when it might finish that lengthy process. You also don’t want to do anything to interrupt the process and have to start it over again.

For this QPR2 Beta 1 update, I had a build weighing in at 2GB+ on my Pixel 7 running Tensor G2 and a 400MB update on my Pixel 8 Pro running Tensor G3. It took minutes to install both of those updates. It was so quick, I set my phone down expecting the process to take its usual 30-60 minutes only to be surprised when a notification was there shortly after asking me to restart. I didn’t clock the update, but it was so quick that I was genuinely in a bit of shock and thought something might be wrong. Others with a Pixel 6 / 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, and Pixel 7a all said it took a handful minutes on their phones as well.

We don’t know what Google has done to speed up this process, but we’ll take it. With a potential toggle to get rid of “At a Glance” and magically speedier updates, I can tell you that QPR2 is already a winner.