Pixel 8a Gets First Factory Image Files on Launch Day

To celebrate the launch of the Pixel 8a today, Google went ahead and released the first factory image and OTA files for the device.

For those not familiar with the importance of this release, just understand that these are the files one could use to bring their phone back from tinkering ruin. If you own a Pixel 8a (or any other Pixel device) and try and root or mess with its bootloader or recovery, you could break stuff. These factory image files can be flashed to get you back to a clean and working phone.

We also like to see these files go live because they confirm codenames that we’ve often been tracking. The Pixel 8a is indeed “akita,” as was reported for months. In fact, we first saw the Pixel 8a and its “akita” codename back in September of last year, just prior to the release of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Google released 8 different factory image builds for the 8a that all have the May security patch. It could be that Google needed all of these builds for different locations across the globe. I wouldn’t be surprised if they shrink to only a couple of monthly builds going forward.

If you need to find Pixel 8a factory images, head to this link.

And if you need to know more about Google’s newest phone before our review drops, here’s our initial impressions after 5 days of use.