If you own a Nexus 6P or a Nexus 5X smartphone and have been experiencing the in-car Bluetooth connectivity problem, then your pain is about to end. Google seemed to have developed a fix as the thread detailing the problem at the Android Open Source Project forum has already been marked as FutureRelease.
Status Change
The label is believed to mean that the problem has been solved and Google should be releasing a firmware update or a patch in the next few days.
The Bluetooth connectivity problem was first posted in the Google support community platform in October 2016. It detailed an inability on the part of the Nexus 6P to maintain Bluetooth connection, despite a number of workarounds.
"I have deleted the pairing and re-created it, but the same issue stays. It will connect for about 5 seconds, and then disconnect," the first poster explained.
The problem only surfaced after the Nexus 6P was flashed with the Android 7.1.1 Nougat update. Responses to the thread have also revealed that the bug also manifested in the Nexus 5X and even in some Google Pixel and Pixel XL devices.
Android Nougat Bug Quashed
Along with the status change, the Google developer who has been assisting the consumers in the support thread has acknowledged that Google has indeed quashed the bug. However, he was not able to provide the exact schedule of the firmware's rollout.
"The development team has fixed the issue that you have reported and it will be available in a future build," the developer said.
The statement could mean a lot of things but the most likely interpretation is that it will probably get released as a patch. This was how Google addressed the modem vulnerability of the Nexus 6 and 6P devices recently through the January security patch.
According to GSM Arena, there is a security patch due for release next month so the fix could probably ship with the firmware.
Fix In The Next Nougat Build
It will be bad news if Google decides to bundle it in the next iteration of the Android software. If this is the case, then affected owners will have to wait a bit longer, if we take into consideration the history of Android Nougat releases.
Google introduced the Nexus 6P to the 7.1.1 build in the early part of December last year. The device itself got its first Nougat treatment back in August so there are several months in between.
Following this timeline, a new Nougat build will probably begin hitting Nexus 6P devices at the end of the first quarter of this year.
