Google has started rolling out a surprise mid-November update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro yesterday. The patch is relatively small at around 15MB and only comes with a minor bump in build number — from SD1A.210817.036 to SD1A.210817.037. The company hasn't provided any details about what's new, so Pixel owners are left guessing what exactly it introduces. However, Verizon has published a changelog for the new .037 build, noting that it "improves the performance of your device's fingerprint sensor."

The Pixel 6's in-display scanner woes have been detailed extensively at this point: it is slow to unlock, does not work properly with screen protectors, fails to read your fingerprint, and in some cases, it can unlock your device with another person's biometrics. Google even went on to defend the fingerprint scanner's slow performance by claiming it "utilizes enhanced security algorithms" due to which it can take longer to verify identities. It looks like this mid-November update from Google aims to address at least some of these issues.

Multiple Pixel 6 owners have reported in a Reddit thread that the fingerprint scanner is a bit more consistent post the update, especially with screen protectors, and the failure rate has gone down noticeably. However, it is still not as fast as the sensors on the Galaxy S21 or the OnePlus 9 series. The results seem to be a mixed bag, as some users report seeing no improvement at all. This new build should hopefully also rectify the scanner not working if your Pixel 6 is completely discharged.

Despite some Pixel 6 owners not seeing any improvements, it does look like Google has addressed some of the pain points of the in-display fingerprint scanner with this minor update.

The company tends to release a new update for Pixel devices on the first Monday of every month. This surprise mid-month build to fix the fingerprint scanner shows that Google is paying heed to all the complaints from Pixel 6 users.