Google rolling out larger Material time picker across its Android apps

Abner Li | Aug 9 2021 - 2:03 pm PT

Ahead of the broader Material You redesign, Google is rolling out a small tweak to one particular important and frequently used component in apps. The time picker UI across Google’s Android apps are getting updated to a new, more touch-friendly design.

Most apps show the analog component first, with Google now better spacing the fields for hours and minutes. It’s also much more obvious that AM and PM can be tapped in Android’s new time picker design.

Meanwhile, this top portion of the screen is now the entire manual entry UI. Compared to before, everything is larger, and the time picker makes better use of the available space. Users also don’t have to deal with a small AM/PM dropdown/touch target. (As a side note, you can also see the updated Material You number pad in Gboard below.) The cover gallery above shows off the landscape variant of this UI.

Overall, this is a spacious improvement and has been rolling out to more Google apps over the past few weeks. Google Search uses this updated component for setting Assistant Reminders, while version 5.21.301.10 introduces it to Google Keep on Android.

Google Calendar, Tasks, and Clock have yet to be updated, though the latter app will likely wait for its broader Material You revamp. Third-party apps can similarly be updated with this component, which was recently introduced, at any time.