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Google Play Store replaces tiny overflow button with ‘tap & hold’ gesture

The overflow icon is a common UI convention that’s leveraged throughout Android to hide settings and other unimportant options. Google is now replacing it in the Play Store with a “tap & hold” gesture and bottom sheet menu.

When browsing the main Play Store feeds for apps, movies, TV shows, and books, icons have long featured an overflow button in the bottom right corner. This menu provides shortcuts for quickly installing a new app or purchasing content, as well as telling Google Play that you’re not interested.

The icon has always been relatively small compared to ones placed in the top-right corner of an app bar and therefore harder to press.

Google is replacing it with a “tap & hold” gesture that appears to be widely available today. Slowly rolling out in recent weeks, it replaces the overflow icon, with users seeing an introductory prompt when it’s first available in their Play Store.

Meanwhile, instead of a popup menu, there is a new bottom sheet that features an app icon, name, review score, and rating. There is a big dark green “Install” button and “Not interested” above it.

This minor change also has the benefit of making Google Play slightly cleaner by ridding the Play Store of that ugly gray triple dot icon. The gesture might be less obvious, but in the grand scheme is easier to use. As of today, these changes should be widely rolling out to all users, if not already available.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com

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