Is your Pixel gaslighting you? You are not alone

We generally praise the Pixel software experience for being one of the — if not the — cleanest version of Android available. However, it isn’t immune to the occasional nasty bug. Lately, a weird little glitch has been haunting the Pixel Launcher, and it is disorienting to say the least.Here is the gist of what is happening: you swipe up to close an app, immediately tap a different icon on your home screen to launch something new, and—surprise!—the app you just tried to close pops right back up. It is like the phone is lagging just enough to register the old state instead of your new input.According to a thread of reports on Reddit, this hasn’t just started happening; some users have been dealing with this for roughly six months. One user noted that they have had the issue since upgrading their device, advising others that “you need to wait until it closes fully” before tapping the next icon. It is a bit of a mess, and while it sounds minor, it kills the fluidity of using the phone.

In the world of premium smartphones, how the UI “feels” is just as important as the specs under the hood. When you look at the competition, specifically Samsung, the contrast becomes interesting. Samsung’s One UI used to be the poster child for clutter, but lately, they have dialed in their animation engine. The transition between apps on the latest Galaxy devices feel reliable and snappy. If Google wants the Pixel to remain the “smoothest” Android phone, the basic navigation mechanics need to work every single time, not just most of the time.The frustrating part is that Google is aware of this. The bug was logged in their official tracker, and back at the beginning of the month, a developer noted it had been passed to the team. Since then? Radio silence. There hasn’t been an official update or a timeline for a patch, leaving users in the dark.

This is the kind of bug that frustrates users more than a major crash. Why? Because it messes with muscle memory. I expect my phone to keep up with my thumbs, and when it gaslights me by opening the wrong app, it breaks the illusion of speed. It makes a premium device feel cheaper than it is.Would this stop me from recommending a Pixel? No. I still enjoy the experience, the camera, and call screening features which I still consider to be top-tier. But for a premium phone, fixing this should definitely be a priority. Until Google pushes a proper patch, you really only have one option: slow down. Take a breath, let the animation finish, tap the next app, and hope that Google rolls out a fix in the next software update, if not sooner.