Over on the Android Public Issue Tracker, an extensive thread reveals just how many folks feel the pain. Since October, the growing complaints of Pixel 8 and 8 Pro owners describing choppy scrolling experiences has caught Google’s attention. However, complaints soon expanded to other Pixel models as well, suggesting that the issue lies somewhere in the Android code of the Pixel launcher.
Android 15 to the rescue?
Google’s response to the thread (as spotted by Android Police) states that the “next Android release” (read: Android 15) will include a fix. That fix? A series of optimizations aimed at fixing that dreaded “UI jank”. The exact response states:
“Ongoing optimizations in performance and power are slated for the next Android release.”
“These include improvements positively impacting overall system UI jank as well as use cases tied to some Android applications.”
This isn’t a new occurrence
This isn’t the first time Google’s acknowledged the issue and promised a fix. These same scrolling issues once affected the Pixel 7 when it first launched, which forced Google to quickly work on a fix that rolled out as part of an Android 13 update.
While Pixel phones are generally great devices, and truly my personal preference for a clean Android experience, I have to admit that Google regularly misses the mark with them. Even with a fully developed Android beta program, serious bugs still somehow get through. Here’s hoping history doesn’t repeat itself with the long wait for Android 15‘s final release. Right now, we’re barely into the second developer preview.