Google has introduced a visual update to the Play Store. The update adopts the Google Material Design principles that exist across much of its products. – including YouTube and Google Drive. The redesign has been available via a workaround for some time now, but Google is now officially rolling out the changes.
Google’s new Material Theme for the Play Store makes a number of changes. First off, it’s much less colourful – and not in a bad way.
The redesign ditches the old colour schemes for Apps and Games, Movies and TV, and Audiobooks. The new theme is primarily white – giving the Google Play Store a much cleaner look.
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The changes will come to you automatically, but if you’re an eager beaver, 9to5Google reports that you can access the new theme early. You need to update to version 15.1.24 of the Play Store to get the redesign, and head to the app’s Info page, clear the cache and force stop.
Credit: 9to5Google
The Google Sans font has also rolled out across the whole app, and there’s also changes to what Google calls Nested tabs. Nested tabs required the opening of a menu from the side of the screen as well as additional clicks to get where you wanted to go. Now, the Play Store’s categories can be viewed at all times, at the bottom of the app.
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The new-look Google Play Store has some other little changes too. Material Design principles include replacing some icons. Instead of a ‘More’ button, there’s now an arrow. There’s also new tab indicators, and buttons now have a faded outline.
Google Play Music appears to have been given the short shrift with this update. The section does not get a place on the new bottom navigation bar. To find it, you need to open the menu to the left and navigate to – almost – the very bottom.
The move is none too surprising, with Google placing more focus on YouTube Music in recent times.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
