I think I discovered, or at least I have not seen it mentioned in here the software fix for the lens flare. Googles Photo app has just been released yesterday. When in the photo app, take one of your pics with lens flare, if you managed to have them saved. Click on that picture, go to the edit section, click on the middle, pull up the pic, click on the middle near the bottom (you will see a square box with a plus next to it on the left side while looking at the phone). Next to your first slide adjuster (called light) you will see and down indicator. This will open up a section called "Light". Your 4th choice down will be a slider called "Shadows". Slide that to the left and your halo disappears. You will then be able to save that pic and you will notice, the flare or halo is completely gone! Tried it on 3 pics that I had lens flare issues with and the pics look great! Give it a shot. You can do a side by side comparison with both the original pic and the pic you just "fixed" and it looks great.
If I am correct, this may be the software fix that google had been working on to correct the issues. If not, this works wonders on my pics