Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A redesign is in the works for Albums in Google Photos.
- The new look introduces a floating bar and rearranges some options.
- The UI change makes Albums easier to use one-handed and access share settings.
Unless you have big hands, navigating through your albums in Google Photos with one hand can be a bit difficult. But it looks like a UI change could fix that, along with making it easier to access share settings.
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.
The add photos button appears underneath the cover photo in the current version of Google Photos. When you scroll, it moves to the top of the screen, making it almost unreachable with one hand. On top of that, if you want to share, you’ll have to stretch your thumb all to way up top to tap on the three-dot menu just to see the option.
In version 7.7 of the Photos app, this appears to be changing as some elements have been rearranged and a new floating bar has been added at the bottom of the screen. You can see an example of old vs new in the screenshots below.
We actually discovered evidence of this floating bar in the works in an earlier APK teardown. It looks mostly the same as before, with the same options for sharing, adding a new photo, and editing. However, there is one difference this time, Google has dropped the text that appeared under the icons. As a result, the bar is a little more compact compared to the last time we saw it.
The bar isn’t the only change here. You may notice that the Cast icon at the top of the page has been swapped out with a transfer icon. This Cast option hasn’t disappeared, it has just been moved to a new location.
If you want to find Cast, you’ll now have to tap on the three-dot menu. In addition to Cast, you’ll also find some new options, including Order photos, Sharing settings, Auto add photos, and Open member options.
In short, everything is functionally the same after the redesign. However, the UI has been improved to make things a little easier for one-handed use and sharing.