No matter how mature software is or whether we call it stable, there are bound to be bugs in anything more advanced than a ‘hello world’ app. If you’re running Android 12L on a phone with a notch or punch hole, there’s a decent chance some of your apps don’t look quite right. A change in the latest version of Android is causing a layout bug in some apps that results in an offset of background colors, action bars, and possibly other elements at the top of the screen.

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The specific issue appears to be a miscalculation of the device insets, a configured size unique to each device that informs an app where it can safely draw interface elements. It’s not entirely clear what causes the bug to occur, but in a pair of reddit posts, users of Google’s latest OS update seem to indicate the issue usually occurs after opening the keyboard in certain apps. While it likely happens with quite a few, Snapchat, Spotify, Flamingo (Twitter client), Talon for Twitter, and Google News were all named.

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Our own tests confirm that this bug isn’t triggered on the Pixel 4 XL, but it did occur on the Pixel 6 Pro, and several reports also point to it happening on the Pixel 5. The common thread is that it’s occurring on devices with a notch or punch hole camera, which necessitates a larger status bar and system insets.

There’s no confirmation yet on what exactly causes the malfunction. It’s possible the bug resides in Android 12L itself, or it may be the side effect of making a correct change to the OS that had the side effect of exposing a longstanding bug in some SDK or UI framework used by many developers. If it’s the former, responsibility will fall on Google to fix this with updates for the affected phones. Of course, if it’s the latter, we may be in for a long wait as developers update their apps one-by-one.

In the meantime, it doesn’t seem as if there’s much that can be done outside of force closing apps. However, the issue is mostly cosmetic, except when it occasionally hides buttons, so most of us can probably live with it until Google (or the app developers) work out a fix.

Thanks, Luca H.