Android 16's broken back button is driving me crazy — but there's finally a fix
If you've upgraded your Pixel to Android 16 already, you may be having the same problem as me: inconsistent back button performance. As frustrating as this is, there is a fix on the way, and it's already available in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2.1.
The update itself is just 5MB, and was announced over on Reddit. As you might expect for an update this size, the release notes are not particularly long. The update includes a fix for the "Approve" button in Device Admin settings, which has been transparent and invisible, while also stopping lockscreen sounds from playing when they've been switched off. Niche, but still pretty important to have.
The other two updates are the ones that should be more relevant to the majority of Android 16 users. They're fixes to stop the launcher crashing when you swipe up from the bottom, which has happened to me a couple of times, and the aforementioned back button problems.
As frustrating as it was to have the launcher crash on me, I never actually realized that was a bug at the time. I just assumed my phone was too hot, and I needed to do a better job of keeping it from overheating. The back button issue was the one that was getting on my nerves.
I've argued before that the back button is arguably Android's best legacy feature, and something that iPhones have never been able to successfully copy for some reason. The worst part about the bug was the inconsistency of it too, since the gesture would only stop working some of the time — and without warning.
The worst part about the bug was the inconsistency of it too, since the gesture would only stop working some of the time — and without warning.
It initially had me wondering whether it was an app issue, and that devs had done something that screwed with the way software worked on Android 16. But no. Not only did it keep happening, it also kept happening in different kinds of apps.
The web browser is the one that stuck out the most, since I could always use the built-in navigation buttons. But when it happened in WhatsApp, I had to exit the app and start over again to get where I needed to be.
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But the public QPR 1 update isn't going to be arriving for a little while, so what does this mean for non beta users like myself? Well Android Police believes the fix will come with the July security update, which should be here within the next couple of weeks.
Frankly, the sooner it happens the better. I'm getting real tired of having to navigate the web like I'm on a desktop machine.
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