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Google appears to be testing a refreshed navigation interface in Google Maps

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Google Maps is one of the best ways to get directions, but it’s not a perfect app. When driving, the navigation interface is fairly well optimized for quick taps, but accessing any settings in the app covers up your directions. That requires users to look at the screen longer to finish the desired action and get back to the map. However, in a new update, it appears Google is changing things up a bit.

On the latest update for Google Maps for Android, 9.42.3, Android Police noted a new UI that appears to be rolling out via a server-side change. The new UI includes some very slight tweaks, but all of them are welcome changes.

First and most notable, the “options” button has been swapped for “more.” Tapping that brings up a brief menu which doesn’t cover up your directions entirely, but still offers quick access to options for searching along the route, checking alternate routes, a list of directions, and the settings menu. It’s also worth mentioning that the entire “ETA bar” appears to act as the “more” button. The last slight change is that the “x” previously used to exit navigation now displays the word “exit” underneath. A slight change, but one that may end up assisting less experienced users.

At the moment this appears to be rolling out as a very limited server side update, so it’s unclear when Google will roll it out on a wider scale ─ perhaps alongside the long-awaited speed limit update.

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