Pixel 10 phones hit by widespread app crashes after October update

Owners of Google Pixel 10 phones reported widespread, sudden app crashes this week after installing the latest October system update, with users saying apps freeze or display an "app not responding" dialog before shutting down. The problem has been reported most often on Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro models and appears to affect a broad swath of Android apps on those devices, while owners of older Pixels and other Android phones report little or no impact.

Affected users described the failures as intermittent and unpredictable, occurring shortly after the October update arrived on their devices. Rebooting and the usual remedies such as clearing app caches and reinstalling individual apps provided only brief relief for many, with crashes returning within minutes. In several accounts, attempts to restore functionality by standard troubleshooting steps failed to stop the problem entirely.

Technical traces and user troubleshooting point to Google Play Services as the likely source of the fault. Several users reported that rolling the phone to the October Android build, then uninstalling updates to Google Play Services and the Google Play Store before reinstalling them stopped the...