Nougat had its fair share of Bluetooth issues, particularly on Google's Pixel devices, but you'd be forgiven for hoping that Oreo would avoid similar problems. Sadly, it seems that Pixel and Nexus owners are experiencing a number of different issues after installing the final version of Android 8.0, and Google is trying to gather user feedback in order to address the matter.

Google posted on both the Pixel and Nexus forums asking for information but didn't elaborate on exactly what kind of bugs it was expecting to hear about. Users are asked to categorize their feedback and include the following information:

Car/Auto

  • Year/make/model of your car
  • Issue/symptoms

Headphones

  • Brand of headphones
  • Issue/symptoms

Bluetooth Speakers

  • Speaker brand
  • Issue/symptoms

Looking at the feedback already posted by device owners, we can see that issues include the following:

Android Auto

  • Media content not displaying correctly
  • Showing paired but no audio playing
  • Plays music for a few seconds before breaking, nothing showing on screen
  • Incoming calls work but outgoing reverts to the phone's speakers

Headphones & Speakers

  • Audio cuts out briefly every 5-20 seconds
  • "Skipping and clipping sounds like a scratched CD"

General

  • Bluetooth switching off almost as soon as it's turned on (which the user also experienced in Nougat)

So far, Android Auto appears to be the most affected. Many of the disgruntled users are reporting that these issues have been present since the first Android 8.0 developer preview, and things haven't improved since for them. I've tested connecting to wireless headphones and playing music with Spotify on a Pixel XL and Nexus 5X without encountering any issues, which is hopefully the case for the vast majority of people.

It's disappointing that Google wasn't able to fix some of the same issues that have been present in the Android 8.0 dev previews (and in Nougat before them) before releasing the final version of Oreo, but we can take some solace from the fact the team is trying to gather as much information as possible so it can work towards fixing the problems. We'll keep an eye on things and let you know when we know more.

Source: Nexus Help Forum, Pixel User Community