Google app beta tests redesigned Discover header on Android 12

Kyle Bradshaw | Apr 14 2021 - 11:02 am PT

android 12 wish list - google discover feed widgets

The latest beta version of the Google app includes a redesign of the homescreen Discover feed on Android 12 that revamps the header and removes the search bar.

Last night, version 12.14 of the Google Search app began rolling out through the Play Store to those who enrolled in the beta program. Following the update, devices on Android 12 have gotten a redesigned header for the Discover feed available on Pixel phones by swiping to the furthest left homescreen page.

Where the previous version of this page’s header was tall and offered a larger Google logo paired with a search bar, the new version is much shorter with only a simplified monochrome Google logo, a button leading to the Assistant’s Snapshot feed, and your profile picture, which opens to the Google app’s settings.

Just as before, the dark mode version allows a peek at your wallpaper through the somewhat transparent background. The transparency is only available for the header, below which you can faintly see the rounded corners of the darker background of the Discover feed itself.

Interestingly, the new design is not yet integrated with Google’s homepage Doodles, as this morning’s Doodle about Johannes Gutenberg does not appear in place of the Discover feed’s Google logo as it did before. Opening the Google app proper, the Discover page there still shows the Google Doodle as normal.

Digging into the code, our Dylan Roussel was able to determine that this redesign is indeed exclusive to Android 12 devices. Additionally, the redesign should be available on Samsung devices that offer the Discover feed on the home screen like the Galaxy S21 when they receive an Android 12 update.

With the formal Android 12 Beta period on the horizon for later this spring, the redesigned Discover may be intended to take cues from the Material Design changes that have been spotted and leaked for Android 12.