New security measures make Android 13 for Pixel 6 a one-way update

Android 13 is slowly rolling out to Pixel phones, but here’s what to consider when that update message finally hits your device: You can never go back.

Google is apparently changing the way it applies Android updates on its latest devices. A new warning message on the Pixel Factory Image page says that the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6a will never be able to revert to older versions of Android once they’ve been updated:

Rollback Protection was first introduced in Android 8 as a security feature. Google can patch any exploits it needs, but security patches are pointless if an attacker can simply roll back a device to a previous version full of security holes. Rollback protection works by writing the newest installed version to tamper-proof storage that is saved when the device is wiped, so the system now knows if it’s in the old version or not. The feature used to just display a warning message on boot (and it looks like it still happens on the Pixel 5 and below), but now Google is blunt about the Pixel 6: “You won’t be able to flash an earlier version of Android. 12 builds.

It’s not clear why this change only affects the Pixel 6. Other than Android 12L, this is the first major update to the Pixel 6 OS. The three phones listed are also the only three phones to use Google’s first proprietary SoC, Google Tensor, so it’s possible the chip is annoying your muscles with new downgrade protection features.

It’s not a big deal for most consumers, but in previous versions of Android, it was nice to have an escape hatch if Google released the first release with particularly buggy bugs. If you frequently try different builds of software, this change will presumably mean you won’t be able to use any older third party ROMs either.