Google Maps bottom bar redesign rolls out on Android

Abner Li | Jul 31 2024 - 3:25 pm PT

As previewed at I/O 2024, Google Maps is more widely rolling out a redesign that simplifies the bottom bar.

Google Maps goes from five tabs to just three, with Go and Updates removed. Explore is unchanged, while the functionality of the Go tab becomes “Saved trips” under Your lists in the center feed.

“Saved” has been renamed to “You,” though the contents of this feed is mostly unchanged, with the bookmark icon also retained. However, Notifications and Messages from the old Updates tab — Following is already part of Explore — has been moved to the top-right corner. Google has also removed the search bar from this view.

Contribute rounds things out and is unchanged.

Overall, it makes app navigation a little bit cleaner with five tabs — in general — pushing things (see: Google Home). It’s also not a tall Material 3 bar with Dynamic Color not leveraged. This follows the sheet-based redesign earlier this month on Android. These two changes are not yet available on iOS.

We’re seeing this bottom bar redesign with version 11.138.x of Google Maps for Android. Force stop the app if you’re not seeing it yet.