Usually, when you unlock a Google Pixel phone using a fingerprint, there’s a nice little vibration accompanying the process, signaling that the sensor detected your finger. This vibration, typically known as haptic feedback, also gets triggered when the sensor detects that you used the wrong fingerprint to try access the locked phone. However, soon after the March update rolled out to Google Pixel users, reports started emerging with claims that the update broke haptic feedback when using the fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone.
Even more strangely, another subset of Google Pixel users are reporting that haptic feedback is not working for them specifically when using the fingerprint to unlock apps. Some apps, especially banking and financial apps like Google Wallet, offer the option to add fingerprint authentication as an extra layer of security. Usually, the process of unlocking these apps is accompanied by haptic feedback to signal that it was either successful or unsuccessful.
But since the March update rolled out, some Pixel users indicate that while haptic feedback works fine when unlocking the phone using a fingerprint, it’s missing entirely when unlocking within apps (1,2,3,4).
This is quite the opposite of the early reports on the faulty haptic feedback, and it highlights the often unpredictable nature of software updates. The vibration is simply not there when unlocking apps, which is quite absurd but nothing unusual with Google software. There’s always some strange bug with nearly every Google update, and this is just one of those.
Luckily, a product expert in the official Pixel community forum has confirmed that the team is aware of this glitch and is working on it.
The team has informed us that this is a known issue and that a fix will be implemented in a future update.
A fix will be made available through a future update, most likely the April security patch. But with no workaround so far, affected Pixel users have no choice but to sit back and wait for this fix.
Hillary Keverenge
2117 Posts
Tech has been my playground for over a decade. While the Android journey began early, it truly took flight with the revolutionary Lollipop update. Since then, it's been a parade of Android devices (with a sprinkle of iOS), culminating in a mostly happy marriage with Google's smart home ecosystem. Expect insightful articles and explorations of the ever-evolving world of Android and Google products coupled with occasional rants on the Nest smart home ecosystem.
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