Android 12 on the S21 Ultra seems to break many things
While I have not had the events of install day reoccur, I have been plagued by a parade of apps that seem to not function with the new operating system. This has been a bit difficult to nail down because many of the apps I am trying are not known to me, but in the past an Android app generally works, especially on a flagship Samsung product.
One of the things I do on a somewhat regular basis is download temporarily free games (there’s this app that scans for price reductions I use) and while not always the most quality, developers who charge or charged at one point generally have a product that at least works out of the gate. Until Android 12 I can’t recall any app I downloaded that failed.
Currently I’m at two or three apps I’ve tried having the clear cache message, which I’ve never seen before, and apps like Wombo which I use to amuse my kids’ grandparents suddenly not being able to see what you’re selecting.
I tend to not attempt to point blame squarely on the update. Things change from Android OS to Android OS, and as far as I know all these apps may just need to be recompiled with a higher SDK level or something. But it’s been the jankiest update I’ve had since the EVO days when Sprint’s horrible update killed Google Maps for several months.
It could also be something’s wrong with my phone. Happened 12 years ago with bad HTC EVO 4G onboard storage. Rare but happened.
No idea if it’s related, but the OK Google keyword is now being triggered by random things that sound nothing at all like “OK Google.” I was listening to the news on my drive into work today, as played by “ok google, tell me the news.” and it triggered on sentence during a report it was playing a news piece on the Ahmaud Arbery case that didn’t even contain an “oog” sound.
I’m interested to know if I’m the only Samsung S21 Ultra 5G user seeing these problems. It’s bad enough, as someone who reviews things and needs a reliable device so I don’t blame a product, that I’m considering factory reset at this point. While there’ve been no obvious issues with most of what I run, I am noticing that one Ooler I’ve got refuses to connect any more. Ooler’s not been the most rock solid app on any phone I’ve owned, so that’s not a slam dunk indictment of the OS.
Anyway, what’s your experience with Android 12? Am I the only one having weirdness?
