Honestly, is it that hard for a company like Google to deliver Android updates without any issue? Turns out maybe not. According to user reports, a recent Google Play System update brought serious performance and crashing issues to the Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 10.

Google Pixel 9, Pixel 10 performance issues following Play System update

Google recently issued a 15MB update for its Pixel phones. This is a security update, and at 15MB, it doesn’t seem like a particularly huge update. However, despite its small size, it is causing big issues for Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 owners, as spotted by 9to5Google . Users are reporting that following the update, their phones are feeling quite sluggish.

This is surprising given that the Pixel 9 is a little over a year old, and the Pixel 10 was released just last year. While we get that older phones tend to lag over time, this shouldn’t happen to relatively new devices. We’re not sure if this has something to do with the update running some background processes that will eventually go away with time, or if it’s a bug that Google needs to address.

Pixel 10 owners also reporting system crashing

Unfortunately for Pixel 10 owners, sluggishness is just one of several problems. 9to5Google noted that following the update on their Pixel 10, the Pixel Launcher failed to load completely. They had to reboot the phone to get it working again.

Then, there are posts on forums like Reddit , where one user claims that they’re getting weird screen glitches. Other users have also reported other problems, such as the AOD flickering whenever the clock changes. “I notice now on my always-on display, there is a hard flicker when it updates the clock. Basically, it flickers every minute, maybe if a notification comes through as well.”

Some users speculate that this could be due to the heavy reliance on AI features that are causing these issues. Either way, while these issues aren’t exactly breaking devices, they’re still inconvenient. Especially since we use our phones every day, so imagine having to go through all that until a fix is released.

Hopefully Google is aware of the issue, and a patch to fix these problems is coming soon.