Google apps that need a few more tablet optimizations

Abner Li | Jul 11 2023 - 2:30 pm PT

Google’s first-party tablet apps are in a good place right now and meaningfully contribute to the Pixel Tablet experience. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and here are a few suggestions.

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Low-hanging fruit

A handful of apps are still stretched-out versions of their phone counterparts. Google Voice and Tasks are more than usable with their tall Material You bottom bars fitting right in, but there are some obvious upgrades for these Workspace apps.

Google Voice would really benefit from a dual-column layout (and navigation rail) for texting. Fortunately, Google Chat and Meet provide good templates on what to do, with voicemail transcripts, call screens, and contact details ideally also opening in a right-hand pane.

Meanwhile, entries in Google Tasks don’t need to span your entire screen. I’m imagining the ability to see multiple lists simultaneously and/or a tap opening the details of a task at the right. Google Calendar and Keep should serve as guides here.

Navigation rails needed

Google Podcasts, which may or may not stick around, should switch to a navigation rail like the main Search app. With the tall bottom bar gone, you could easily squeeze in another row of podcasts.

Similarly, I think YouTube Music would benefit from one. Right now, its three tabs are spaced out across the entire screen rather than being centered in the middle. YouTube and YouTube TV take that opposite approach, but I think that comes off as too squished. The ideal solution for all three is a navigation rail.

Not everything has to be fullscreen

My general takeaway is that more apps should leverage columns for content. For example, Google News, which has a rich homescreen, should open articles in a phone-sized (or half-sized) pane. There should absolutely be the option to go fullscreen, but I find that narrow chunks of text are sometimes better for readability than spanning the entire width of the screen. The same design could be applied to Google Discover articles.

A good example of this in action is the Play Store. When you search for an app, selecting one opens the listing in a pane rather than taking up the entire screen by default. A button in the top-right corner lets you expand things, though I’m not a fan of these listings on tablets since columns are primarily used to just show app suggestions/ads.

Misc

Google Clock is nice on large screens, but I’d like to tweak the world clock functionality. Your selected cities appear in a column on the right side that can show four at a time. Meanwhile, the bottom of the left side is empty. A redesign could show much more here. Even the world clock homescreen widget could serve as a template here.