Google Pixel 7 series users claim this movie clip is causing their phones to crash, reboot

Google unveiled its Pixel 7 series during the Made by Google 2022 event. The Pixel 7 series comprises the standard Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro smartphones. Much to the chagrin of the Pixel 7 series owners, these handsets are reportedly teeming with all sorts of software issues.

Some users have also reported hardware-related issues, although over 50 per cent of the Pixel 7 Pro components are supplied by Samsung. As if that weren't enough, an earlier report revealed that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro do not support the latest 5G standards. These Pixel 7 series issues aren't seen on other Android smartphones. A new bizarre issue has now been reported.

A specific YouTube video is causing the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro to crash and soft reboot. The video is a 4K HDR clip from the sci-fi movie "Aliens." Interestingly, the issue isn't limited to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro smartphones. According to a report by GizmoChina, some Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a owners have experienced the same problem.

When users try to open the movie clip in the YouTube app, their Pixel 7 and 7 Pro hang, crash, and reboot. A Pixel 7 Pro first reported the issue on Reddit. Some Pixel 7 users claim they lost cellular connectivity once their device rebooted. However, they were able to resolve this issue by restarting their phone.

It looks like the cellular connectivity issue is temporary and sorts itself out after a few minutes. The Reddit thread implies some Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a smartphones also crashed when opening the movie clip. However, it is worth noting that some Pixel 7 series handsets did not crash when loading the YouTube video.

So, it is unclear what is causing some Pixel 7 series devices to reboot instantaneously when playing this YouTube video. Multiple Reddit users compared this weird Pixel 7 series issue with the wallpaper crash bug on Google and Samsung smartphones in 2020.

Some Reddit users suggest the Pixel 7 series' HDR processing could be causing the problem. People reportedly send the movie clip to Pixel 7 series users as a prank. Meanwhile, the search engine giant is mum about releasing a fix for the strange problem.