Existing Pixel smartphones receive a taste of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with Android 12 rollout

Android 12 has reached stable status for Pixel smartphones, having debuted earlier this month. Inexplicably, Google's latest OS was not ready when the company released it to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which has not happened for a few years. At the time, Google stated that it needed to apply some final tweaks before distributing Android 12 to its smartphones, albeit without going into specifics.

While the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are the first smartphones to launch with Android 12, neither will ship until the end of this month. Hence, existing Pixel smartphones are the ones to receive Android 12 from the Pixel 3 series onwards. The list of Pixel smartphones eligible for Android 12 is as follows:

• Pixel 5a (5G)
• Pixel 5
• Pixel 4a (5G)
• Pixel 4a
• Pixel 4
• Pixel 4 XL
• Pixel 3a
• Pixel 3a XL
• Pixel 3
• Pixel 3 XL

The OS update is rolling out now globally as an over-the-air (OTA) update. Typically, Google staggers OS update in phases over a few days, but you should be able to trigger the update manually should you prefer to do so. Alternatively, you could use the Android Flash Tool to install Android 12, which also gives you options of factory resetting your device and locking its bootloader. You can view all Android 12 images on Google's developer portal.

In a blog post, Google explains that Android 12 will arrive later this year on at least Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo and Xiaomi devices. Each Android OEM will confirm its Android 12 release plan separately.

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