Phone by Google, like Messages, is taking a piecemeal approach to rolling out its previously announced redesign. Following the Favorites tab removal that most, if not all, Google Phone beta users got yesterday, the Home and Keypad redesign is beginning to roll out with a navigation drawer.
The Recents tab is now called “Home,” while the Favorites bar adds a prominent “View contacts” shortcut in the top-right corner.
Meanwhile, Contacts is replaced by a new “Keypad” tab that replaces the FAB (floating action button). The general layout is unchanged, with a sheet for the actual number pad and “Suggested” contacts appearing at the top.
Top comment by Pete4live
The roll out of Material 3 Expressive is like always absolutely abysmal.
In 2 years from now, half of the apps will still be stuck on the current Material 3 style while the other half has adopted some expressive elements here and there while still having old Material 3 or even Material 2 elements in other places.
With Material 3 they gave themselves a lot of leeway design wise and yet they keep implementing elements in the worst ways possible on the UX side. The new Material 3 Expressive guidelines explicitly say that the side navigation drawer is deprecated in favor of the new navigation rail and yet literally the first thing they do is add a navigation drawer with 4 options that should clearly have been in the settings menu or the navigation bar on the bottom.
I just don't get it.
The Voicemail tab looks unchanged from the original design.
This redesign adds a navigation drawer to the Google Phone app. Featuring rounded corners at the top/bottom-right, you have access to the Contacts list, Settings, Clear call history, and Help & feedback. This replaces the three-dot overflow menu in the “Search contacts” field. The microphone button now moves to the very right, with this bar not appearing in the Keypad tab.
Notably, this Home, Keypad, and nav drawer redesign is rolling out to both Material 3 and M3 Expressive, with most Google Phone users not having the latter look yet. (That update is what brings the new incoming call gesture.) Compared to the Favorites removal, this latest round is not widely rolled out yet.
Beta version 182 started introducing these changes earlier this week.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments