What you need to know
- Google is making small tweaks to many of its first-party apps, and Google Contacts is the latest to receive a slight redesign.
- Google Contacts no longer features a navigation drawer, now replaced with a unique drop-down menu, tag selector, and filter button.
- Separately, there’s a new page for creating and managing custom ringtones under the “Fix and Manage” tab.
Google is changing the visual user interface of the Google Contacts app on Android, removing the navigation drawer and adding a new page for custom ringtones. A minor redesign makes it easier to sort, tag, and filter contacts in the Google Contacts app. It is now available with version 4.27.26 app, but you may need to restart the app for the redesign to take effect.
Navigation drawers are on the way out in many of Google’s first-party apps, and now that includes Google Contacts. Instead of a drawer, three main switches are available. Below the search bar is a drop-down menu that allows you to change the view. You can see all your contacts at once, view contacts associated with a specific Google Account, or create custom views.
To the left of the new drop-down menu are two switches. There’s a tag picker that lets you create new tags or select existing ones, and a filter button that lets you separate phone contacts, email contacts, and companies. In general, the functionality here is not new, it’s just in a different place. Instead of a hamburger menu icon, there is a search icon at the top of the main Google Contacts tab.
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Separately, Google is introducing a new page for creating and managing custom ringtones in the Google Contacts app. It’s situated in Fix and manage card, below Other tools section. After touching Ringtones for contact option in the list, you will be greeted with a new page. With this tool, you can give each contact in the Google Contacts application their own unique ringtone.
“Add a custom ringtone to individual contacts to help you identify who’s calling,” the page explains. “To manage the default ringtone for this device, visit Settings.”
Both changes are now rolled out to the Google Contacts app after a server-side update. Make sure your app is Google Contacts version 4.27 or newer for good measure, then restart it to see the new changes. The redesign joins other recent updates to Google Contacts, such as live location for contacts.