Google’s May Pixel update fixes weak notification vibrations on Pixel 6 phones

For multiple lines of Android phones, The move to Android 12 was difficult, including withdrawn updates and occasional bugs. Still, the number of issues we saw for Google’s flagship Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices alone was surprising. Today Google has announced that the May 2022 Update for Pixel devices is beginning to roll out. It fixes an issue people noticed on the Pixel 6 phones after the March update, where the vibration for notifications was suddenly much weaker.

Two fixes apply to all Pixel devices from Pixel 3a to 6 and fix issues that can cause the display to wake up without interaction and one issue that could cause the launcher to crash, but one line only applies to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro:

Improvements to haptic feedback under certain conditions and use cases

When we wrote about the change, many people said they actually prefer the weaker notifications, but without confirmation from Google in response to threads on reddit and its support forum, we weren’t sure if it was an intentional change that would stay the way it was, or a bug. I can confirm that after installing the update on my Pixel 6, the vibrations are much stronger when set to maximum than before.

Now you should be able to set the strength to your liking in the settings menu based on your own preferences. According to Google, the May 2022 Pixel update will continue to roll out in phases over the next week; However, you can manually sideload it onto your device via the web-based sideload Android flash tool as described here or from a command prompt. Of course, these steps should only be followed if you’re willing to take some risk with your device, and if you’re not in a hurry, you might want to wait and see if anyone finds a problem or two with this latest update.