Google has started rolling the March 2018 security patch for its compatible Pixel and Nexus devices. The company’s security bulletin provides detailed information about the security issues and vulnerabilities fixed by this update. More importantly, Google has also used the March security update to fix a number of issues plaguing the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL for months.
For the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, Google has fixed the unusually long time it took for the display to wake up when one unlocks the device using the fingerprint scanner. Google ended up introducing this issue with the December security patch and after numerous complaints from Pixel 2 owners, it promised to fix the issue in an upcoming update. It has also improved the crash reporting so you can now easily report bugs to Google.
For the Pixel 2 XL specifically, Google has improved the audio quality while recording videos. This was a longstanding complaint from Pixel 2 XL owners and Google is finally getting around to fixing it. There were reports from many Pixel 2 owners of increased battery drain, but there’s no mention from Google here on whether it has been fixed or not. The March security patch also fixes a number of High severity vulnerabilities and issues with Android’s media framework.
The 55MB security patch is already being rolled out by Google, and if you cannot wait for the update to show up on your Nexus or Pixel, you can always grab the OTA or the factory image from Google’s website and sideload it manually.