Android 5.1 found to contain memory surge and app launcher bugs affecting Google Nexus 5 users

Google, which officially released the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) OS update to fix flaws in the Android 5.0 (Lollipop) operating system, should now look at releasing yet another update as Android 5.1 is reported to contain major bugs.

According to a Threatpost research report that quotes users of multiple Nexus devices, Android 5.1 throws up difficulties while performing general everyday activities such as launching applications, besides the random restarting of apps even without them being opened.

The report also talks about the issue of random upsurge in memory consumption.

These issues are said to affect users of Google's Nexus 5 smartphones predominantly ever since the rollout of Android 5.0.1 but continues to persist even with the latest Android 5.1 OS update.

Several users of Nexus 5 seem to have experienced this issue according to the official Android Code Issue Tracker forum. Users have complained that their systems' RAM experienced difficulties due to the upward spike in memory consumption which led to processes/app crashes and launcher redraws.

It does look like Google has taken note of the bugs in Android 5.1, as the company has confirmed to Threatpost that it has fixed the issues internally, although this fix is yet to be made public. So, Android smartphone users can expect yet another OS update shortly.

Android 5.1-current rollout status

According to the most recent updates, Google's Android 5.1 is active for users of Google's own Nexus smartphones viz Nexus 6, Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10 tablet, apart from reaching owners of Android One handsets in India.