Google Releases Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 For Pixel

Not that it’s a summer Friday or anything, but hey, there’s a new Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 that dropped on Pixel phones just as we all called it quits for the week. Cool.

If you own a Pixel 6a up through the Pixel 10 series (including the Pixel 10a), you can grab this update immediately. The new Pixel 11 series is not included just yet, which makes sense since those phones are in pre-order and the only people who have them are the nerds like us.

This update could have new stuff and we’ll spend our weekend attempting to find time to look at it. Give us a minute.

The best way to get this update is through the Android Beta Program (sign-up). If you are into flashing images, there are OTA images available (here) too.

In an official changelog, Google says specifically that this update to QPR2 Beta 3 adds new security restrictions to protect against programmatic call forwarding fraud. The changes there are as follows:

• API Restriction: The sendUssdRequest() API is no longer accessible for call-forwarding codes using only the CALL_PHONE permission. Standard apps attempting to execute these codes in the background will be blocked and receive a USSD_ERROR_NOT_ALLOWED callback.
• System Confirmation: To combat social engineering scams, users manually dialing call-forwarding codes in the system dialer will now see a new OS-level confirmation dialog before the command is executed.
• Non-Call Forwarding USSD: Non-call forwarding enabling USSD requests (such as mobile money transfers and account checks) are unaffected by this change.
• Mitigation: If your app is affected, verify that it handles the USSD_ERROR_NOT_ALLOWED failure callback gracefully. For apps requiring call-forwarding setup that do not qualify for an exempted role, migrate your flow to use the ACTION_DIAL intent to pre-fill the dialer, allowing the user to manually confirm the action.

For other changes in this update, Google has fixed two bugs:

• Opening the notification shade and Quick Settings menu caused visual corruption and an unexpected device restart. (Issue #535249652, Issue #543124160)
• The Device Health and Support tool erroneously displayed false battery capacity degradation warnings to users. (Issue #535421490, Issue #538943170, Issue #535504630)

Again, we’ll flash the update and report back shortly.

// Android