Google has released Android 17 QPR3 Beta 4 to Pixel testers. It tackles a memory leak that made phones stutter and restart, a Bluetooth bug that ate the battery and an on-screen keyboard that looked cut off, and it puts back the Bluetooth option for switching off absolute volume, which testers had missed.
The build came out on 12 November, a few days after Android 17 QPR2 reached stable Pixel phones in the November Pixel Drop. QPR3 is the next quarterly platform update for Pixel phones, and Beta 4 is the fourth test build of it, following Beta 3 in October.
Google’s release notes name four top fixes. Typing no longer shows a keyboard that looks sliced off at the edges. Bluetooth no longer runs so much in the background that the battery drains fast. A leak in system_server, the core Android process, had been behind heavy lag, Pixel Launcher crashes and unplanned reboots. The last item is developer-facing: apps targeting API level 36 now get a clearer message when Android refuses an old TLSv1 or TLSv1.1 connection.
The Bluetooth option is what testers had asked about. Google’s Mishaal Rahman replied to testers on Reddit that the team had heard them and restored the “disable absolute volume” switch. In Beta 4 you find it in Developer options, under the Bluetooth heading. Non-testers should see it once QPR3 goes stable, he said.
Pixel owners who want the build can enrol through Google’s Android Beta for Pixel programme. The release notes give no date for stable QPR3.
