Pixel 6, 6 Pro Users Report Spontaneous Screen Cracks; Google’s New Update Disables Call Screen, Hold for Me

Google has temporarily disabled some Assistant-enabled features including Call Screen and Hold For Me on the latest Pixel 6 smartphones.

By David Delima | Updated: 23 December 2021 14:42 IST

Pixel 6, 6 Pro Users Report Spontaneous Screen Cracks; Google’s New Update Disables Call Screen, Hold for Me

Photo Credit: Google

Google has paused two Assistant-enabled features on Pixel 6 smartphones running the December update

Highlights

Google’s Pixel 6 Pro is equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Users are alleging “spontaneous” cracks on their Pixel 6 smartphones
Google has also disabled two Assistant features on Pixel 6 due to bugs

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro users are complaining of random cracks appearing on their smartphones. Customers have taken to the company's support forums and Reddit to allege that the front glass of their new Google Pixel smartphones are “spontaneously” cracking. It appears that a larger number of Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphones users have been affected, compared to the vanilla Pixel 6 variant. Google is yet to clarify if it's a manufacturing defect. Separately, the company has temporarily disabled two Assistant-enabled features, Hold For Me and Call Screen, on Pixel 6 smartphones due to a bug in the December update.

Users of Google's recently launched Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones have taken to Reddit and Google Support forums to complain about cracks appearing on their smartphone displays, as first spotted by Android Police. Readers might recall that these handsets are equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, which is marketed as the toughest available protective display covering for smartphones. A small number of users have also shared images of the cracked displays on their smartphones on the forum.

The image on the left was shared by user Nikolai Pitchforth, while the image on the right was shared by user Ash10wolde on the company's support forum
Photo Credit: Google Support Forum

According to a user who claims their smartphone was always in a Google case and “has never been dropped or sat on”, the company's warranty helpline responded saying that “screens don't just crack”. Another user states that they were using a Spigen case and noticed a hairline crack from the top left to the bottom right of the screen while charging their phone in the car.

A majority of the complaints from customers appear to be from owners of the larger Pixel 6 Pro smartphone, which sports a curved display. The support thread on the company's forum had 27 responses from customers, and Google was yet to respond to the complaints at the time of publishing.

Gadgets 360 has reached out to the company for a comment on the issue and will update this space once the company responds.

In another Pixel 6-relates development, Google has reportedly paused both Call Screening and Hold For Me Google Assistant-enabled features on Pixel 6 smartphones. A Product Support Manager stated in a support thread that the company was disabling the feature on Pixel 6 handsets running on the Android 12 December QPR release, until it “fixes underlying problems”.

The Call Screen feature allows Pixel owners in supported regions to screen calls from unknown numbers using the Google Assistant, while the Hold For Me feature allows users to perform other tasks while their phone stays on hold (for them) during a call. The features are currently disabled on Pixel 6 smartphones that have the December update installed (such as build number SQ1D.211205.016.A4) and should be enabled again once the bugs are resolved.

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Google Pixel 6

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.40-inch

Processor Google Tensor

Front Camera 8-megapixel

Rear Camera 50-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB

Battery Capacity 4614mAh

OS Android 12

Resolution 1080x2400 pixels

More Google mobiles Google mobiles price in India

Google Pixel 6 Pro

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.70-inch

Processor Google Tensor

Front Camera 11.1-megapixel

Rear Camera 50-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 48-megapixel

RAM 8GB, 12GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB

Battery Capacity 5003mAh

OS Android 12

Resolution 1440x3120 pixels

More Google mobiles Google mobiles price in India

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Further reading: Google, Pixel, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro

David Delima

Email David Delima

As a writer on technology with Gadgets 360, David Delima is interested in open-source technology, cybersecurity, consumer privacy, and loves to read and write about how the Internet works. David can be contacted via email at DavidD@ndtv.com, on Twitter at @DxDavey, and Mastodon at mstdn.social/@delima. More