Pixel 3 Issue Causing the Camera to Fail When Launched in a Third-Party App

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Published 20 Nov 2018

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Pixel 3 camera

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL launched not too long ago, but an issue has cropped up that is leaving some owners frustrated with one of the phone’s best features.

BuzzFeed recently updated their review of the Pixel 3 that it published earlier this year, noting that the reviewer went out and purchased their own Pixel 3 and immediately ran into a major bug: When trying to activate the camera from within a third-party app, the camera fails entirely, and will not launch again without a full restart of the phone. The fatal crash of the camera app can happen in what appears to be a variety of different third-party apps, including Twitter, Instagram, and even the Google Authenticator app.

The cause of the bug is unknown at this time. And, at the time of publication, a thread on the issue over on Google’s product forums has over 100 responses, so it appears to be a growing issue. It does seem like the bug is only in random Pixel 3 units, though, and it is not affected all of the models out there in the wild. Google is aware of the bug and is currently working on a fix, per their statement:

“We’ve looked into reports of this issue and have identified a fix that will roll out in the coming weeks.”

While it would be better if the fix was coming right away, especially considering the first post in the product forums regarding this issue is from a month ago, at least a fix is coming at all. The Pixel 3’s primary strength is its camera and if folks are seeing it fail entirely for any reason, that’s definitely not great.

[via BuzzFeed; Google Forums]