Mandatory Pixel 6a update to reduce battery overheating risk coming July 08

Google has announced that starting July 08 Pixel 6A devices will get a mandatory update which is aimed at reducing potential battery overheating risk on select 6A units. The announcement was made on a recently published support page titled ‘Pixel 6A Battery Performance Program’.

The company clarifies that while all Pixel 6A units will get the update, only “Impacted Devices” will receive features to ensure there is no battery overheating risk. It’s worth noting that there already are reports of at least two 6A units catching fire so far. Here’s one of them:

Moving on, the announcement says, even on Impacted Devices, which will get the new battery management features, the changes will kick in only after the battery crosses 400 charging cycles (there will be a reminder about this as the battery crosses the 375 charging cycles mark).

Needless to say, as soon as the changes kick in, the Impacted Devices will see a reduction in battery capacity and charging performance. Here’s how Google explains the whole scenario:

To verify if your unit is part of the Impacted Devices list, you can head here.

Google is also offering multiple support options for owners of these Impacted Pixel 6A Devices. For example, you can opt for battery replacement, or even go for cash or Google hardware discount. However, there are many ifs and buts associated here. Take a look:

As you’d have probably observed by now, Google hasn’t provided any details on why only some Pixel 6A devices have battery overheating risk. Anyway, you can read everything in detail by heading to the Google Support page.

In case you aren’t aware, Google Pixel 4a users have already undergone a similar process. It wasn’t exactly smooth, especially for those who wanted their battery replaced. We covered it extensively here.