Stable Android 12 arrived for Pixel phones a few weeks back. Whether you're buying a brand new Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, or you're updating an older phone, Android 12 comes with not only design improvements in the form of Material You (whether you love it or hate it, it's here to stay), but also new features that should greatly change the way you use your phone. Now some Pixel users are receiving an unexpected new Android 12 update, and it sure seems like this one's being sent out in error.

Some users with Pixel 5 and older devices running Android 12 have started to receive a software update telling them it's time to upgrade to Android 12 — again. Reports have been surfacing on Reddit, Telegram, and Twitter where users complain that they got a weird, random OTA update on their Pixel. The update is apparently showing up on devices as old as the Pixel 3a, and with a size as large as 1.8 GB, we're definitely looking at a full update rather than just an incremental release.

So what exactly are users getting here? On the Pixel 4, the build number is changing from SP1A.211105.002/7743617 to SP1A.211105.002.A1/7807550. And in that same Telegram channel we shared earlier, it's been confirmed that the build number is a Verizon build number, specifically one for the latest November security update — the MD5 checksum of this update and the equivalent Pixel OTA file seem to match. That sure makes this look like a Verizon-targeted software update is currently rolling out to unlocked Pixel users.

A likely explanation for why this is happening could be that a Verizon software rollout is going a little bit wider than intended, and was pushed to users worldwide, instead. Unlocked phones and carrier phones have separate update channels, since all updates going to carrier devices need to be validated by that specific provider before distribution.

Hopefully Google's already on top of this one and is in the process of putting a stop to the errant updates.