Google quickly exterminates Pixel 6 line's Magic Eraser bug with simple fix

Thursday evening, we told you that a new bug was causing the Magic Eraser to take down the Google Photos app and cause the app to crash. Considering that Google has heavily promoted the AI-based feature which removes unwanted people and things from photos, we expected a quick response from Mountain View and we got it.

In a post on the Official Google Account on Reddit, the company wrote, "Thank you for your patience and bug reports. Starting today, we are rolling out a fix, so please update to the latest version of Google Photos (5.76.0.426251772 or higher) in the Play Store."

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro users on Reddit were grateful to Google for exterminating the bug, and the speed at which it was done. One Reddit subscriber who goes by the handle of eastvenomrebel said, "Well that was quick. Just spent some time messing around in it. All good! Thanks for the quick fix Google/Android/Pixel team!"

Google Pixel 6

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Google Pixel 6 Pro

Same BestBuy conditions apply to the Pixel 6 Pro too. You can get an unlocked version or a version with a carrier plan.

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The bug appeared to have been caused by an update to the Photos app. This wasn't the first time that the Magic Eraser was involved in a software glitch because of an update. Back in November, the update to version 5.67 of the Photos app caused Magic Eraser to disappear. Google sent out a software update that returned the feature to the Pixel 6 line.

You can find the update to the Google Photos app right here. I've installed it on my Pixel 6 Pro and everything works quite swimmingly, I must say.

As we told you earlier in the week, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the Pixel brand had the best quarter in its history during the period from October through December which covers the introduction and release of the Pixel 6 series. The company brought a true flagship to the table this year starting with the use of its own Google Tensor chipset.

Thanks to the Tensor, Google was about to build features into the phones that it couldn't do when buying its chips off the shelf from Qualcomm. The Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Face Unblur, and Live Translate are exciting features that depend in part on the Tensor chip. And Assistant voice typing on Gboard has received rave reviews as the feature does a great job with dictation by typing in the correct punctuation and spelling in real-time.

For those of you who have owned a Pixel before, perhaps the build is one of the biggest improvements to the device. Personally, I owned a Pixel 2 XL which was my daily driver from 2018 to 2020. While the software contained the usual Google gimmicks designed to make life easier, the build was not worthy of the flagship phone title. Not that there was anything wrong with its looks as the device in question was the "Panda" model (which unfortunately was hidden by a case).

But with the Pixel 6 series, things are different. The build is solid, Gorilla Glass Victus covers both sides, and the distinctive camera bar alerts those around you that you are holding one of Google's latest handsets. This is the model that Google thought it was building with the Pixel 4.

Now in hindsight, we can see that the Pixel 4 was a misguided attempt by Google to take on Apple and Samsung by using face recognition, and hand gestures. In 2020, Google took a breather and the Pixel 5 wasn't really an attempt to go after Apple or Samsung. Google might have used this time to ask itself where it wanted to go with the Pixel line.

And in 2021, Google answered. It wants the Pixel series to be right up there with the iPhone and the Galaxy S phones. You can feel it in the build of the Pixel 6 line.

And there's more. With a rumored Pixel Watch on the way (possibly as soon as this May), and a foldable Pixel phone constantly coming out of the rumor mill, Google wants to be known for its hardware and would like to build an ecosystem that challenges Apple's. The bugs don't help, but if Google continues to make quick fixes when necessary, it just might be a contender.