It’s March and Google has announced the security patch update in the Android Security Bulletin for March 2021. This also details the functional updates for the Pixel devices (in the Pixel Update Bulletin) that are rolling out now for supported handsets. This comes in the wake of Samsung Galaxy phone updates (March 2021 patch) that has rolled out already. Apart from the normal bug fixes, the update brings resolution for the 43 issues in total for the Pixel 3 series, Pixel 4 series, and Pixel 5 phones.
The vulnerabilities fixed with the update include the ones that are rated moderate or high – affecting the framework, media framework, kernel components and the Qualcomm components. To the user’s relief, the update brings a fix for the Android Auto disconnecting bug and the unwanted missed calls being displayed on the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 5 devices.
The two devices see the most noticeable updates including the fix for chopped full-screen display, battery indicator anomaly, and the buggy autorotate feature. Other than this the broader update includes the improvement in the delivery of heads-up notifications for the starred contacts when Do Not Disturb mode is active.
This update now comes with the fresh Pixel Feature Drop that now brings more sharable Recorder, ability to take underwater photos, new set of wallpapers, Gboard’s smart compose feature, and the bedtime schedule for Pixel devices. Geeky users will definitely be looking to explore these new features and things are looking exciting in that respect.
The update is rolling out now on the devices in a phased manner, but if you can’t wait long enough, the factory images or the over-the-air-files can also be downloaded. That though should only be done if you have good experience with flashing the factory images.
Other than this the Android Security Bulletin for this month brings the official disclosure of bugs like Android’s runtime, framework, system, and media framework. In the settings, if you see the 2021-03-01 security patch level then these all have been fixed.
The same goes for the disclosed vulnerabilities in closed-source vendor components and the underlying Linux kernel. If your device shows the 2021-03-05 security patch level then they all are fixed.
