If the test doesn’t involve a joke or two, then you’re not a true tester! The beta users want to identify errors in new software but what if the app used to report these errors becomes defective too?
These are the conditions that Dr. Knee has to cope with when the previews are being conducted on the Android 14 and Android 15 developer previews. This past week, an update of the Android Beta Feedback app, which is used to report issues, seems to have caused a bug that breaks the sign-in system.
Users in a beta version of the app can test different features or the app as a whole. A ride through GitHub simply just grants you access to these bugs experienced earlier by other users (the present example is the lack of an option to load APKs on Android DP1). Moreover, by discovering and creating your issues, you can contribute even more. Consequently, to submit a report, you should have to log in with your Google account. Users can request additional details and follow the status of the report using the same platform.
In the latest version of the software (2.41), something goes awry with that process. Bothering to sign in with your Google account will soon raise an error message: a slow link. So, it was probably not your connection. Clicking on your profile icon handles now signed-in accounts, just a “sign in” button which operates just like you are adding a new account.
Therefore, the app was intended to be used to report bugs, but now it turns out to be bugged itself which subsequently becomes quite a rudimentary hurdle for beta testers. And most likely, Google will roll out yet another minis site update to resolve the issue; yet server-side change could be an alternative solution, too.
In the meantime, you can uninstall the app to report a critical issue which cannot wait until the next version comes out or you can find the previous version to install manually. However, a reminder comes to us that Google will spare no efforts to mend and bring the Android beta world to normal in the shortest time possible.
