The Google Pixel 7 Pro and its smaller sibling were only released this month, and so far, we’ve predominantly found praise for the two great new flagship phones. Like with any big launch, not everything can be perfect, though. According to multiple reports, the first Google Play system update fails to install on many units.
As first spotted by 9to5Google, some people received notifications that their new phones have a small sub-1MB Google Play system update pending, asking them to install it. However, upon following the on-screen instructions, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro owners were met with a “failed to update” warning rather than the prompt to restart their devices to finish the installation process. While we haven’t received a notification like this on our Google Pixel 7 units, we were able to manually start the update process only to be greeted by the same error message. Even a reboot doesn’t help with installing the update.
Looking at the notes attached to the Play system update, it doesn’t look like it will bring many changes in any case. The update prompt just promises to bring the “Latest security update from Google. Update now to keep safe and improve device stability.” It would still be preferable to get this update straight away. Right now, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro throw up a warning that their Google Play system update version is out of date, showing that the last update was supposed to be from July, which would be software from before the release given their October launch.
Google Play system updates, if you’re not familiar, are not full system updates. Instead, they’re meant to bring updates to the Google Play Services and system components that can be updated without a full new software build. These updates are available on all Android phones and are less intrusive than full Android releases, as they don't require all apps to be optimized for the new version.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment.