Google Photos has begun rolling out a new floating bottom bar design for its Android application, enhancing the user interface and navigation experience. This update replaces the traditional bottom navigation bar with a floating pill-shaped toolbar, allowing users to view more content beneath and around the navigation elements.
The redesigned floating bar includes tabs for Photos, Collections, and Create. An icon on the left indicates the current feed, while a circular button on the right provides access to the Search function and the Gemini-powered ‘Ask Photos’ feature. This layout aims to streamline navigation and improve accessibility within the app.
In addition to the floating bottom bar, Google Photos has relocated the day indicator to a floating pill at the top of the screen. This indicator appears when users scroll and disappears shortly after. Users who prefer the previous design can revert to it by selecting ‘Show dates in grid’ from the ‘Photos view’ settings in the top-right corner. This option centers the date indicators, maintaining consistency with the earlier left-aligned design.
This design update aligns Google Photos with other Google applications, such as Google Chat and Google Finance, which have adopted similar floating navigation elements. The floating toolbar concept is part of Google’s Material 3 Expressive design library, though it is not officially designated as a primary navigation component.
The floating bottom bar has been available on iOS since February and is now being widely deployed on Android devices through a server-side update. Users can access this feature by updating to version 7.82 of Google Photos and may need to force stop the app from the App info settings to activate the new design.
This update reflects Google’s ongoing efforts to unify the design language across its suite of applications, providing a more cohesive and user-friendly experience. The adoption of floating navigation elements not only modernizes the interface but also enhances usability by offering more screen real estate for content display.
