The latest Google Pixel Feature Drop introduced plenty of new flashy features for the devices and provided a fix for an issue that a number of users have experienced for nearly a year. For quite a while, some Pixel owners have been reporting issues with their phone’s Widevine L1 status falling to L3, barring them from streaming DRM-protected content at high resolutions. With this week’s Feature Drop, the problem has finally been fixed.
Google has confirmed that the issue should no longer affect Pixel owners, which is good news, though the fix has come a little late. Google announced that it was aware of the problem in April 2021 when users began reporting it and that the company was looking to address it soon. Following the announcement, however, there wasn’t any news from Google about a potential fix until now.
Alongside other things added in the Android 12L Feature Drop like Live Captions and Interpreter Mode, all Pixel owners should now be able to stream content from apps like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max in HD with no issue. Although the update notes don’t explicitly say it, users are able to see that the Widevine security level is back up to L1 in the Playback Specification tab in their Netflix app.
While the patch comes as a welcome surprise, there was some indication that it would be coming in the March update from Android 12L beta testers who reported that the software had fixed the issue.
Even if you’re not sure if your device has been affected by the long-standing bug, it’s not a bad idea to check to make sure that your Pixel is up to date with the latest software update.