Ever since I flashed Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on my HTC Want Z, I’ve been interested by attempting the newest and — supposedly — best model of Android as quickly as attainable. When Google began publicly testing official Android developer previews and betas, I shortly signed up and it’s grow to be a yearly custom for me. New developer preview? On my secondary cellphone! Out of developer preview and into beta? On my foremost cellphone! That’s how I ended up with the Android 14 beta on my Pixel 7 Professional and all of the bugs made me remorse it ever since.

Earlier than I keep it up, I do know we’re speaking a few beta and beta software program is bug-ridden by definition — testing is essential to get to the secure launch. I additionally know that bugs are hit-and-miss. I don’t recall seeing any notable difficulty with any earlier beta I’ve flashed on my Pixel telephones within the final 5 years at the very least. That’s extraordinarily fortunate, however betas are alleged to be considerably extra secure than early developer previews. I suppose all of my karma ran out, although, and I bought saddled with a mess of annoyances and bugs from day one with the Android 14 beta.

So take into account this a public service announcement, in case you’re pondering of becoming a member of the beta. If any of the problems under are dealbreakers for you, you would possibly wish to keep away.

My greatest difficulty with the Android 14 beta is the reducing audio playback bug. It’s so frequent that I can’t take heed to music or podcasts anymore as a result of your complete expertise is past irritating. When the show is off, audio might proceed taking part in for a couple of minutes usually then it begins getting uneven each second or couple of seconds, at a random rhythm. Even when I may get used to it, the unpredictability of it’s painful.

This occurs with each the loudspeaker and with Bluetooth earbuds, with Now Enjoying enabled or disabled (for some individuals, disabling Now Enjoying fixes it, however not for me), and with Spotify and PocketCasts and YouTube or another audio (even WhatsApp voice notes). Generally it begins the second I begin listening to one thing, generally it offers me a couple of minutes of respite then it will get triggered. The one solution to keep away from it? Maintain the show on.

The video above reveals it in motion. I uploaded a barely longer model to Google Drive in case you like torturing your ears for practically two minutes in 4K. After I flip off the show, music playback will get unbearably uneven, then resumes usually after I unlock the cellphone. The start of the video additionally reveals a random bug the place playback randomly skips a second after I unlock the cellphone; I’d say that occurs one out of thrice.

The newest Android 14 beta 2.1, which is meant to repair some audio-related bugs, hasn’t fastened any of this. I’d say each points appear to happen extra hardly ever since I up to date, however they do nonetheless happen.

One other drawback I’m going through is with charging my Pixel 7 Professional. Each day, I get up to a notification saying there was a problem with the charging accent (it’s a documented bug) though my cellphone is absolutely charged. I’m utilizing the identical charger and cable as earlier than, however the notification is protecting me on edge, questioning if it’s only a flawed discover or if there’s actually one thing off with my Pixel’s charging.

Within the six months I’ve had the Pixel 7 Professional, I don’t recollect it fully freezing, ever. I’ve been blessed with a really secure expertise. However within the final couple of weeks, this has occurred at the very least 4 instances. That is the unhealthy freezing too; the place you may’t even power a reboot by long-pressing the ability button for ten seconds. Nothing works and also you simply have to attend for it to crash and reboot by itself. Beta 2.1 was launched yesterday and it’s supposed to cut back these, so I suppose we’ll see.

Different points I’ve observed are basic digicam slowness, particularly when zooming or recording video. Now Enjoying wasn’t working, however the newest beta 2.1 appears to have fastened it for now. The loudspeaker was additionally popping randomly, which is a enjoyable expertise on high of the uneven audio playback. Once more, that is supposedly fastened in beta 2.1 and I haven’t observed it since yesterday.

So sure, Google is clearly engaged on ironing out all of the kinks earlier than Android 14 releases attain platform stability and grow to be obtainable to everybody. I hope the audio playback drawback shall be fastened as quickly as attainable, although, and never in August. In any other case, I’ll should reset my cellphone and return to the secure model of Android 13.

Within the meantime, in case you’re teetering on the sting and pondering of testing the beta, I’d advocate you keep away. Until you want dwelling dangerously.