What is ANGLE, and why is it such a problem for Pixel 11 gaming?
If you’re not familiar with ANGLE, it’s a compatibility layer that implements OpenGL ES on top of Vulkan. In other words, an OpenGL ES game can continue making OpenGL calls while ANGLE translates them into Vulkan commands for the underlying GPU driver. Even if a game engine primarily uses Vulkan (such as COD Mobile), ANGLE can still be called in for parts of the rendering pipeline that use OpenGL ES, meaning a game doesn’t necessarily have to be entirely OpenGL ES-based for ANGLE to be involved. In theory, this can enable improved performance on modern GPUs while still supporting games and emulators built on OpenGL ES, but the main aim is to standardize the implementation and compatibility across Android devices.
This same menu that toggles the toast also offers the option to change ANGLE preferences on a per-app basis, allowing the system to decide or force ANGLE or “Native,” which reverts to standard OpenGL calls. To investigate whether this switch to ANGLE was contributing to the excessive janks and judders, I re-ran Genshin Impact with the feature disabled. The results are striking.
How to fix Genshin Impact microstuttering
Robert Triggs / Android AuthorityGoogle has been moving toward an OpenGL ES-on-Vulkan architecture for several years, so the Pixel 11’s change appears to be part of a broader Android graphics strategy rather than a Pixel-specific experiment. The unfortunate part is that, at least in my testing, the transition doesn’t appear to be completely transparent across all workloads.
If you’re experiencing microstuttering or jank in a particular game on your Pixel 11, it’s worth trying the native OpenGL option. It won’t necessarily improve performance in every title, but in my testing of Genshin Impact, it dramatically reduced the large frame-time spikes. To do this, you need to enable Developer Options (Settings -> About Phone -> tap Build Number to unlock) and scroll down to the option marked ANGLE Preferences.
You can pick any app installed on your phone and choose between default (ANGLE on the Pixel 11), force ANGLE, or go back to “native” to run OpenGL the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, this isn’t a global option to revert to OpenGL classic en masse.
Let’s hope Google can address this problem in an update in the not-too-distant future.
