Once one of the best features on a Pixel, users now complain that an update has ruined it

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Once one of the best features on a Pixel, users now complain that an update has ruined it

A phone’s haptics provide it with the tactile feedback that gives a user the confidence that he pressed a button on the touchscreen. You might feel a click, a buzz, or a vibration. Some phones are known for having outstanding haptics including Google’s Pixel handsets which are often praised for having the best haptics on any Android phone. But the most recent software update, the March Pixel Feature Drop, has changed things according to some Pixel users complaining on social media.

On Reddit, a Pixel 8 Pro user with the username”toolateSnake” said that the March Pixel Feature Drop update ruined the haptics on his phone. “Haptics were one of the best features on my phone and now it’s one of the worst. This really sucks,” he wrote. He was hoping to get some haptic relief from last week’s Google Play System update, but alas it was not to be.

“Does anyone know if the haptic feedback for NFC payment was taken away in the new update? I often pay with my phone and there’s no haptic feedback anymore. I tried to find the setting but couldn’t. My phone isn’t on vibrate or silent either.”-Reddit subscriber __tylerdurden__

Other Pixel owners on the platform chimed in, backing the above assessment. Redditor “asteria99” said that he was hoping to see the haptics on his Pixel fixed in the next update and noted that the haptics issue is probably a bug, not an intended change by Google. The Pixel 8 Pro seems to be the model most affected by the reduction in haptics quality while the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Pixel 8a are apparently unaffected by this issue.

Pixel users can usually control the intensity of the haptics on their phone through the Settings app. | Image credit-PhoneArena

Trying to describe what the haptic feedback feels like on one of the Pixel handsets impacted by the bug, Reddit subscriber “Relative-Money115” says that it is like a hammer. Usually, humans take action to avoid getting hit with a hammer so you can understand why affected Pixel users are not happy with the change. This dovetails perfectly with another Pixel user who also threw his two cents in on social media and wrote, “I really really hate it. I would describe the haptics as actually painful now, even with the setting as low as it can be. It was great before.”

Some of those whose complaint we mentioned in this article have sent feedback to Google and hopefully, a software update will return the haptics to the way they were before the Pixel Feature Drop was released earlier this month.

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