If you woke up this morning and discovered that your Pixel 3a is able to get a confidential software update, you aren’t alone.
On June 19th, some Pixel 3a and 3a XL owners reported receiving an internal over-the-air update intended for Google employees only, according to 9to5Google.
Carrying a July security patch, the changelog also contains the following statement on the update page:
“CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL ONLY — This is a confidential Googlers-only OTA to update your device to Android 9 with July 2019 security patches and critical bugfixes. You may use your device normally but do not discuss or comment on this update externally. Send feedback to android-dogfood-discuss@. See go/release-faqs for more info!”
Google may have accidentally mixed some Gmail accounts with its Pixel team members’ security credentials, but this is not the first time the Mountain View giant has made this mistake.
According to 9to5Google, a Nexus 6P user received Android 7.0 Nougat before its official launch. In 2017, another ‘CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL ONLY’ May security update landed on some Pixel XL smartphones, essentially giving random Pixel users an unofficial early-access program that Google accidentally revived in June 2019.
Source: 9to5Google
