What you need to know
- Google is testing a redesign of the Google app that would highlight four features with colorful buttons.
- The four buttons are for Gallery, Translator, Homework, and Sing, which already exist in different places in the Google app.
- Although the new icons are colorful, Google’s app is still not formally aligned with the Material You design language.
Google is testing bright and colorful buttons in the Google Search app that identify four features: Gallery, Translator, Homework and Sing. The new icons were first spotted by an Android expert AssembleDebug on Xu (formerly Twitter)and they were confirmed by others. However, they are not yet widely available and are only shown to some working users beta version 15.8.38.29 Google applications.
Interestingly, while these four new buttons are colorful, they don’t directly conform to Google’s Material You design language. Google has been steadily shifting its software and services to Material You, but Google’s app has lagged behind. The colors used in the beta version of the Google app are bright and pastel versions of orange, blue, green and red.
The Gallery, Translator, Homework, and Sing features were already present in the Google app, but they looked different. The current version of the app has five options, although only a few are visible at a time. They are also worded differently, and the new design is more concise and appropriate icons that indicate their purpose.
New contextual buttons in Google App. It looks like Google has started testing this new user interface more extensively in the beta version of the Google App – 15.8.38.29.arm64#Google #Android pic.twitter.com/XNF2DTtsfEMarch 1, 2024
The four buttons are located inside the same oval that includes the main Google search bar. This section of the Google home page still has a dictation button and a Google Lens toggle. Below the main search bar, dictation button, and Google Lens toggle is where you’ll find the new Gallery, Translator, Homework, and Sing buttons.
It’s possible that Google is trying to draw attention to these features. In their current state, the buttons blend in with the white home page of the Google app. The new orange, blue, green and red icons certainly stand out more than the existing buttons.
9to5Google was able to get those buttons to work, revealing that they are context-aware. For example, if the user has just taken a screenshot, a new screenshot button will appear. This pushes the remaining four buttons and users can swipe to access them all.
While the new buttons appear to be available differently in the beta version of Google’s app, plans for a public release are currently unclear.