Android experience generally is pretty smooth. Except now and then, we end up running into an issue that is difficult to explain. Today, we have another phenomenon in the form of a YouTube video that is causing Pixel 7 and other Google Pixel phones to reboot for no reason whatsoever.
After a strange wallpaper, a YouTube video appears to be rebooting Google Pixel phones for no reason
The clip in question is nothing more than a 4K HDR clip from 1979's hit Alien without any weird artifacts in the video, but for some reason, Pixel 7 series is rebooting. It started with Google Pixel users reporting the behavior on Pixel 7 phones. Still, later, some users with their older Pixels, such as the Pixel 6 and 6a, also started reporting the same issue.
You can have a look at the clip before, and don't worry, the reboot only happens if you open the video in the YouTube app.
Ever since this was discovered, the Reddit thread has amassed 362 comments, with almost all the Google Pixel users commenting that they have encountered the same issue. Funnily enough, the reboot is faster than it normally is, but when the phone is back up, it does not have cellular connectivity in most cases, and you have to reboot the phone to gain access to it. As mentioned before, this only happens when you open the video in the YouTube app, but some users say that it also happens when you open it in ReVanced, which does suggest that there is something wrong with the app itself.
I tried playing the same video on my Galaxy S22 Ultra and a Galaxy A52s, and both phones did not crash. Users on the thread and under the comment section have also reported playing it on their Galaxy S23, and the video played without any issues, which is definitely interesting. So far, it seems only the Google Pixel phones are affected.
If you remember, this is not the first time we have encountered something like that. Around two years ago, there was a seemingly harmless wallpaper circulating the internet, and setting that wallpaper on your phone would cause your phone to go in a constant loop of unlocking and relocking itself, with some users even talking about how it caused their phone to soft brick. Thankfully, no Google Pixel user has reported the YouTube video of doing the same thing, but we are more than interested to know what is causing this.
