Google has lately been investing resources to redesign a number of its web and mobile client applications. If you use Gmail, you must have noticed the new soft and elegant material design makeover done to the website. It seems like the next mobile application to receive a material design makeover treatment by the technology giant is the Google Play Store App. This new was first covered by an APK teardown article published by 9to5Google, a popular Google and Android-related news outlet.
The most significant change in the new material design of the Google Play Store app (version 14.5.52) is the abundance of white color. As you can see in the images in this article, the new version of the Play Store doesn’t even feature the dividers for apps and other content which visually separate each section of the page.
This minimalist approach might not receive a unanimous response from the consumers. Some people might love the simple and elegant design and some people might find it absolutely tasteless to the eye due to lack of color. No matter which side you are on, this is what we have and will have to accept it because the Google Play Store is an absolute essential when it comes to using an Android smartphone.
There are a lot of other changes that are worth mentioning too. For instance, the design of the navigation bar on the bottom of the Google Play Store app is completely redefined. The nav bar features four categories: Home, Games, Movies & TV, and Books in the same order. Each tab has been assigned a specific color theme. The Home and Games tabs have green as the primary color, the Movies & TV tab has Burgundy, and the Books tab’s primary color is blue.
The top area of the application doesn’t change color when you navigate through different sections as it does on the current version of the app. The only parts that will change color are the tab section and the tab lettering in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.
The next part to discuss is the search bar on top of the page. The redesigned search bar features rounded corners like before, however, the radius of the corners is slightly larger this time. Also, the “Google Play” hint text in the search bar has been replaced by “Search for app & games” for Home and Games tabs while in the Books tab, the search bar says “Search Books”. The icon of the microphone has also been changed. The new icon is an outline of a microphone instead of the icons inside being filled with solid color.
The app page is also filled with white color and the dividers for different sections of the page have been removed. The install button is wider than the one seen in the current version’s app page and covers about 90-95 percent of the screen’s width. The installation progress is now a circle outside the app’s icon.
