Google started rolling out a surprise mid-November update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro yesterday. The patch is relatively small (around 15MB) and comes with only a slight bump in the build number — from SD1A.210817.036 to SD1A.210817.037. The company hasn’t provided any details on what’s new, so Pixel owners will just have to guess what it brings. However, Verizon has published a changelog for the new .037 build, noting that it “improves the performance of your device’s fingerprint sensor.”.
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The Pixel 6's in-display scanner issues have been detailed at this point: it's slow to unlock, doesn't work properly with screen protectors, doesn't read your fingerprint, and in some cases, can unlock your device with someone else's biometrics. Google even went so far as to defend the fingerprint scanner's slow performance by claiming that it "uses improved security algorithms," which can make it take longer to verify identities. It seems that this mid-November update from Google aims to address some of these issues.
Several Pixel 6 owners reported in a Reddit thread that the fingerprint scanner is a bit more functional after the update, especially with screen protectors, and the failure rate has noticeably decreased. However, it's still not as fast as the sensors on the Galaxy S21 or OnePlus 9 series. Results seem to be mixed, with some users reporting that they didn't see any improvement. This new version will hopefully also fix the scanner not working if your Pixel 6 is drained .
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Despite some Pixel 6 owners not seeing any improvement, it appears that Google has addressed some of the fingerprint scanner issues with this small update.
The company tends to release a new update for Pixel devices on the first Monday of every month. This surprise mid-month update to fix the fingerprint scanner shows that Google is taking all the complaints that Pixel 6 users have been making into account.
Information source: androidpolice.com
