Google Photos rolls out floating bottom bar redesign on Android [U]

Google Photos is finally rolling out a floating bottom bar redesign on Android that updates how you navigate the app.

Update 7/17: This floating bottom bar is now widely rolled out following a server-side update. Force stop Google Photos 7.83 from App info if you’re not seeing it yet.

You’ll also notice changes to the main Photos grid. To have dates always appear, scroll down a bit until a three-dot overflow menu appears in the top-right corner. Enable “Show dates in grid” to remove the floating indicator.

Original 7/8: Instead of a bottom bar docked to the bottom edge of the screen, there’s now a floating pill. As such, you can see a little bit more content underneath and to the left/right of this navigation element.

The container has tabs for Photos, Collections, and Create, with an icon appearing at the left to denote your current feed. A circle at the right lets you search and/or access the Gemini-powered Ask Photos.

Old vs. new

As part of this change, Google Photos has moved the day indicator to another floating pill at the top of the screen that appears when you scroll and disappears shortly after.

That’s the new default behavior with the floating bar, but you can tap the three-dot overflow menu for “Photos view” settings in the top-right corner to enable “Show dates in grid” to get the old experience back. This will center Today, Yesterday, and the day/date compared to the previous left-aligned design.

This new floating bottom bar in Google Photos joins Google Chat and Finance. At the moment, the closest component in Google’s Material 3 Expressive library is the floating toolbar, which is officially not a bottom bar used for primary navigation.

We’re seeing this more widely roll out with a server-side update (Force stop from App info) on version 7.82 of Google Photos. Before today, availability has been quite limited. This design has been available on iOS since February.