Pixel smartphone users still experience crashes in Microsoft Office apps on Android 16 beta, despite Google's fixes. Learn about the issues and workarounds.
© E. Vartanyan
Pixel smartphone users are still encountering issues with Microsoft Office apps in the Android 16 beta. Despite Google's announcement of fixes in a recent update, complaints about crashes persist, particularly from participants in the Android 16 QPR3 Beta program.
After releasing Android 16 QPR3 Beta 2 for Pixel 6 and newer models, the company published an extensive list of fixes, including one for random crashes in Microsoft apps. In practice, however, the situation remains mixed. Some device owners report that Office, Teams, and even the Microsoft Launcher continue to crash, sometimes immediately upon launch.
User reports on Reddit and in Google's bug tracker reveal varied manifestations of the problem. For some, crashes occur only in specific apps, while others experience issues across nearly the entire Microsoft suite. There are also users whose apps run fine in a personal profile but fail to launch in a work profile—a critical problem for enterprise users.
Complicating the search for a root cause is the fact that some Pixel owners claim to have no issues on the same beta firmware version. Interestingly, Google's own comments emphasized fixes related to Microsoft Intune, the corporate device management system. It's possible that scenarios outside this configuration were overlooked.
As a temporary workaround, one user reported that enabling Android System WebView—if it had been disabled—helped restore app functionality. There have also been suggestions that enrolling in the Microsoft Intune beta via Google Play might reduce crashes.
Google has not yet released new updates addressing this problem. For those who prioritize stability over testing new features, rolling back to an earlier version of Android 16 is an option. This process no longer results in data loss, though work devices may require administrator approval.