Following months of beta testing, Android 12L is finally here with numerous features and optimizations designed to make tablet usage better than before. But among these additions, there’s also seems to be a fix for a long-standing Widevine certification bug troubling Pixel owners for a while.
Multiple Redditors on the Google Pixel subreddit acknowledged that the March update fixed the Widevine issues that prevented HD streaming on OTT platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime for them (via Android Police).
For those unaware, users have been complaining about the Widevine on their Pixel devices downgrading from L1 to L3 for over a year now. When L1, streaming services are allowed to play content on 1080p, but when downgraded to L3, the max you get is 480p. Therefore, in order for a device to stream at 1080p, L1 certification is a necessity. The whole system has been put in place to prevent piracy.
When the Widevine issue first hit, Google acknowledged it saying they were working on a fix. But the fix never really rolled out, leaving Pixel owners stuck with an ugly 480p streaming resolution — something that now appears to be changing with the Android 12L update.
Still, there are some who continue to see Widevine L3 even after updating Android 12L. For such users, it is recommended to factory reset the device once. While this isn’t a guaranteed fix, a few users have reported that doing so did the trick for them.
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