When it comes to Google Photos it often feels like Google seemingly doesn’t know what to do with the status bar theme. There was a time when the status bar was a solid color within the Google Photos app, a fine enough look that wasted some space. Then, it was changed to be completely transparent, which looked even more out of place compared to the solid color we used to have, often making the clock and icons illegible.
Well, things are changing once again (via 9to5Google), and finally, for the better. As of Google Photos 7.7, instead of the completely transparent status bar that looks out of place, there is now a translucent bar that ensures your clock and status icons remain legible no matter what theme you use or what image you are looking at, ensuring Google Photos remains one of Android’s best photo apps.
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We’ve gone from solid to clear to translucent
Directly above, you can see the transition of status bar designs for Google Photos, starting with a solid bar, then it went transparent, which made it impossible to read the clock or status icon, and last, we have the newly-released translucent status bar, which is both legible for your clock/icons but still shows you images underneath, the best of both worlds. Things are also improved with the dark theme, which you can see below.
Dark theme showing solid, clear, and new translucent status bars
A small change makes a big difference
Sure, in the bigger scheme of things, a slight change to the status bar theme within a specific app isn’t a big deal. But at the end of the day, ensuring an app looks good and is easy to navigate is key, and with the new change to the status bar in Google Photos, we can not only read the status bar much easier than we could with the clear bar, but we can also see what’s underneath the bar, using translucency for an appealing look that is actually more functional than the previous design. So, if you previously disliked the transparent status bar in Google Photos, Google has finally done everyone a solid and improved things for the better, a welcome change indeed.