Does your Pixel pop? You're not alone

Google’s smartphones aren’t renowned for overly buggy behavior, but some Pixel owners are reporting an unsettling audio issue. Users online say their phones sometimes produce a very loud popping sound when opening or closing apps, as if the speakers briefly overload for a split second.

The Reddit discussion on r/GooglePixel began with a Pixel 10 owner who said the pops happen randomly and can be alarmingly loud. Others quickly replied with similar experiences on devices including the Pixel 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and various previous-generation handsets, suggesting the issue isn’t limited to a single model. One user noted that it’s especially uncomfortable in quiet environments, calling it “cringe” when it happens in a silent room.

From the reports, the issue often appears when audio is already playing in the background — such as an audiobook or music — and another sound is triggered as an app opens. Games and notifications come up more than once as suspected triggers of the popping, though not consistently enough for most users to reliably reproduce it.

Similar speaker popping complaints have surfaced before. A Google Support community post from late December and another Reddit thread from last fall describe loud audio pops on the Pixel 10 series, including cases where the sound occurred even with the volume turned all the way down. Another XDA Forum post from 2024 also describes sporadic speaker popping on earlier Pixel models, though it’s unclear whether those reports are related to the behavior users are seeing now. At the very least, they suggest that audio glitches of this kind aren’t entirely new in the Pixel ecosystem.

At the moment, no clear fix has been identified. If it happens only on a particular app, then that app can be avoided, but this isn’t a solution for most users. Google hasn’t publicly commented on the latest reports, but with multiple Pixel generations now being mentioned, some clarity from the brand would be welcomed. We have reached out to Google for comment and will update this post if we receive a response.