Google app’s colorful new icon shortcuts start hitting beta testers
One-tap access to solving homework, searching a screenshot, or identifying that song.
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- The Google app is cleaning up its shortcut bar with a tight new look.
- Bulky text labels are going away, leaving just some colorful icons behind.
- Testers are seeing this new look now in the Google app 15.34 beta.
A good developer is one who’s both rarely satisfied, and open to possibilities. And when it comes to find out what really makes an app optimal, sometimes you’ve just got to throw everything you’ve got at the wall to see what sticks. A couple weeks back, we were checking out work in the Google app towards changing how you access Search, and in the process, stumbled across a new icon-based look for the shortcuts carousel up top. Now that change appears to be hitting testers everywhere in the latest beta.
At the time, we were more focused the Google app’s bottom bar possibly dropping its Search button, but we were also able to trigger a new look for the shortcuts that you can scroll through under the main Search bar. But Google had already started work on a revamp for this part of the app’s interface, replacing the text-laden buttons with clean, colorful iconography.
