Latest news with #PhoneApp
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Google Phone app is getting a visual makeover with Android 16's Material 3 Expressive
Material 3 Expressive design, for Android 16, has been spotted on the Phone by Google app. Google's Phone app gets larger elements, new buttons, and more. In-call "More" controls now appear as a pop-up menu. Android 16 is a big release, not just in terms of new features but also because of the overhaul of the operating system's Material Design language. Google is calling it Material 3 Expressive, and the company is already working on introducing the design language to some of its popular apps, including Calendar, Photos, Files, and Meet. It's safe to assume that the Mountain View tech giant will introduce Material 3 Expressive to all its Android apps to ensure design consistency in the operating system. While we're all excited to see how Material 3 Expressive transforms each of the Google apps on Android, we just got a solid look at what the Phone by Google app will look like with Android 16's design, courtesy of Android Authority's APK teardown of the app's version 177.0.763181107-publicbeta-pixel2024. The design makeover was spotted on the incoming call screen and in-call menu. The incoming call screen shows the rounded call button, which still supports the vertical swipe gesture for answering or declining calls. This could be seen as a major hint that the company has no plans to replace the vertical swipe with a horizontal swipe and simple tap-to-answer/decline buttons. Image source: Android Authority The in-call screen also shows a new animation for the profile picture of the caller. However, the animation disappears when you receive the call, with the screen showing the name, phone number, profile picture, buttons, and menu, all of which appear bigger than the current ones. The in-call screen is much more than changes in size. The shape of the in-call buttons also changed from round to oval. These buttons change shape to a rounded square upon pressing. We don't see any new buttons, but there is a noteworthy change in how the "More" menu appears. Currently, the "More" button reveals additional control options, including "Add call," Video call," and "Hold," all of which appear in the same container as the other buttons. But with Material 3 Expressive, the additional controls now appear in a pop-up style menu, appearing just above those buttons. Another major change we can spot is the redesigned reject call button, which is now pill-shaped and not rounded. Again, all these changes are currently going through the internal testing phase and are not available to general users. As much as we'd love to see them on the Phone app, there is no clarity about when they will be available. We expect the redesign to be available before Material 3 Expressive is rolled out to Pixel phones via a Feature drop later in the year. Phone by Google Google LLC TOOLS Price: Free 4.5 Download
Phone Arena
5 hours ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Check out how Google plans on improving the native Google Phone app for Android
The first thing you might notice is that the name of the person who is calling you or you're calling appears larger on the top of the display (that person and his/her phone number need to be in your Contacts app) and the caller photos will also be larger. The keypad, mute, speaker, and more buttons are no longer round but are oval. When tapped, these buttons change shapes. The answer call button remains a circle. The new look for the Phone by Google Android app. | Image credit-Android Authority Google has removed the "Call from" text that appears on the top of the screen when there is an incoming phone call. After you answer a call, the phone number of the other party will remain on the display, unlike the current design that shows the number replaced by the length of the call. With the redesign, the time of the call is moved to the top of the screen. Also added is a new animation showing the profile picture for the incoming caller. The current look for the Phone by Google Android app. | Image credit-Android Authority This new look shouldn't be surprising since Google loves making changes to its native Android apps every now and then. The changes made aren't earth-shattering but users might find it easier to read the name of the person calling them with the larger-sized text being used. The larger pill-shaped end button should be easier to press when your fingers are fumbling for the red end button and you're having trouble tapping it cleanly. This is what Google is all about. Redesigns to apps that seem minor might actually improve an Android user's experience with the platform.
Android Authority
3 days ago
- Business
- Android Authority
Google Phone's incoming call screen could get a facelift you can choose (APK teardown)
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing two interfaces for the incoming call screen in the Phone app. Users may be able to choose between a pill-based horizontal swipe UI or an iPhone-like single-tap UI for answering/declining calls. However, users may not have the choice to retain the current vertical swipe UI, which is a shame. Google has been testing a redesign of the Phone app for a while now, primarily focusing on how users answer or decline calls. Back in September 2024, we spotted Google working to abandon the swipe actions for incoming calls in favor of dedicated accept and decline buttons, similar to the iPhone. More recently, in March 2025, we spotted Google testing yet another new pill-based UI for left-right swipe gestures. Google doesn't seem to have made up its mind on which UI to go with, and that's great for users, as it seems it could give them a choice between the two. Interestingly, this choice could co-exist alongside the Phone app's Material 3 Expressive redesign. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. In the latest Phone by Google app v177.0.763181107 beta release, strings indicate that users can choose between the horizontal swipe gesture and the single-tap buttons on the incoming call screen. Code Copy Text answer_method_preference_list_key Incoming call gesture Horizontal swipe Single tap While we couldn't activate the current iteration of the new UIs right away, we have previously seen both of them. For a recap, this is what the current incoming call UI looks like in the Google Phone app: For incoming calls, you get a single button, which you can swipe up to answer the call or swipe down to reject the call. The upcoming single-tap button layout for the incoming call UI will possibly look like this: This layout is similar to the incoming calls UI on the Phone app on iPhones currently on iOS 18, but OEMs like Samsung swap the button position on Galaxy phones running One UI. You can see both in the images below: Incoming calls UI on the iOS 18.1 Phone app on Apple iPhones Incoming calls UI on the Samsung Phone app on Samsung Galaxy phones The second choice that users could get is this pill-based UI for the left and right swipe gestures: When the call arrives, the Decline text is colored red and the Answer text is colored green, while the phone button in the centre animates to showcase a phone ring. The text changes to black color in a second once the animation is done, but the colors can be transitioned back into once again when you swipe right to answer the call or swipe left to reject the call. You can see the animation in this video below: Either option will require retraining muscle memory for Google Phone app users, though users switching from iPhone to Android will welcome the iPhone-like single-tap UI. Since Google seems to be giving users the choice, nothing is stopping the company from keeping the existing vertical swipe and offering it as a choice, too. We hope the company considers this if it indeed is going ahead with the incoming call UI refresh. We don't know if Google will do so, and we'll keep you updated when we learn more. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Android Authority
3 days ago
- Business
- Android Authority
First look: Google's Phone app is getting a tasty Android 16 redesign (APK teardown)
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR An Android Authority teardown has revealed Material 3 Expressive design tweaks coming to Google's Phone app. The visual tweaks currently apply to the incoming call and in-call menus. This comes after we discovered visual changes coming to several other Google apps as well. Google is working on a visual overhaul of Android 16, using its Material 3 Expressive design. We've already spotted a few Google apps with similar tweaks, and we've now uncovered a major overhaul of Google's Phone app. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. We cracked open the Phone by Google app (version 177.0.763181107-publicbeta-pixel2024) and enabled the app's redesign. The visual tweaks apply to the incoming call and in-call menus. Check out the gallery below for a comparison. New UI New UI New UI New UI New UI Old UI Old UI Old UI Old UI Old UI The redesigned screens reflect the Material 3 Expressive style, featuring much larger contact names and caller photos. The redesigned app mostly eliminates simple circular buttons too in favor of larger, oval-shaped buttons that change shape when pressed. The answer call button still has the same circular icon, though, but the end call button is much larger and pill-shaped. There are several other smaller tweaks too. These include the omitted 'call from' text on the incoming call screen, the phone number being shown after you answer the call, and the redesigned 'more' menu in line with Material 3 Expressive. The Google Phone app also offers a little animation for your incoming caller's profile picture before you answer the call. Check out a slowed-down version of this and other app animations below. These Google Phone tweaks also come after we discovered Material 3 Expressive changes coming to the Google One, Google Meet, and Google TV apps. We expect plenty more Google apps to get visual changes in the coming months. In any event, we're glad to see Google making progress on redesigning its apps. But you won't necessarily need Android 16 to see these overhauled apps, as we're expecting these app redesigns to be available on earlier Android versions too. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
