GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR A leak claims that Pixel 10 phones (except the 10a) are set to receive a bootloader update that’ll prevent downgrading to older Android versions.
The change relies on Android’s Anti-rollback (ARB) protection.
Once the update is introduced, recovering from issues in some cases might require sideloading a full OTA image to avoid bricking.
Google may be preparing to tighten software downgrade protections on the Pixel 10 series.
According to the Mystic Leaks Telegram channel, all Pixel 10 models except for the Pixel 10a could receive a bootloader update in a future Android release that increments the anti-rollback version.
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This will effectively prevent users from reverting to an older Android build after updating. Essentially, once a bootloader containing approved new software is installed, it ties the version of that bootloader to hardware, preventing old software from being loaded.
When the Pixel 10 phones receive this update, recovering from issues in some cases might require sideloading a full OTA image to avoid bricking.
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