Reports of another “cursed” piece of content have been circulating online where a YouTube video is causing Pixel devices to crash. The video, a clip from the 1979 movie alienit seems to cause the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and some Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a smartphones to restart immediately without warning.
It was also first reported on Reddit and spotted by Mishaal Rahman, it will start playing the video for only a second or two and then restart the Pixel 7 it is playing on immediately. Digital Trends can confirm that the bug is active and working too, immediately replaying the video of the Pixel 7 Pro we tested it on.
However, all those curious should be warned: Reports on Reddit indicate that video-induced reboots can disconnect some Pixel 7 devices from their service provider. Fortunately, fixing this problem seems to be as simple as another quick reboot or turning Airplane mode on and off. But, as with all unexpected reboots, there is always the possibility that a crash could cause permanent damage to your phone.
Note that the video bug only seems to work when viewed through the official YouTube app. As mentioned above, it affects the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and some Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a phones.
The video itself is nothing particularly special (other than being a classic sci-fi movie), so many are wondering what is causing the problem on many Pixel devices. Many believe that there may be an issue with YouTube’s HDR compression, creating color that’s way beyond the range of what can be displayed on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Similar to the national park background image that caused problems for Pixel and Galaxy phones in 2020, there could be some kind of error thanks to the way Pixel devices interpret colors.
Hopefully Google can address the issue since this is the second time it has appeared in just a few years. Thankfully, the video doesn’t seem to do any significant, long-term damage to Pixel hardware as the wallpaper did, but this is likely an indication of a larger pattern of error in the Pixel’s ability to correctly display a wide range of colors.
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