Google Play Store replaces hamburger menu with avatar icon

The Google Play Store is undeniably one of the most essential apps on Android, as an operating software, it is where users download new applications and can access almost all of Google’s paid subscriptions or features. Since last year Google has been focused on revamping the Play Store for the new generation of Android smart devices and that included a total visual revamp with changes to the position of the search bar, moving the music tab to the main menu, changing the “Apps” page to focus on reviews and ratings of featured apps, etc.., and in the summer of this year, they started releasing new search filters and a new look for the ‘My Apps’ page.

In the latest addition to this revamp of the Play Store, Google decided to get rid of the hamburger menu. The hamburger menu is a term to describe the three-lined menu icon that had been in use for a long time, but now Google has decided that it is time to replace it as some new features from the newer generation of Android smart devices did not work well with it. The options that were previously accessible by tapping the hamburger menu icon in the left side panel on the screen have now been relocated to be accessed by tapping the avatar on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

Hamburger menus were popular before due to the small screen size of devices back then, it served as a tool to have the extra settings and options tucked away in an invisible panel that could be expanded by tapping on an icon: but as over the years, screen sizes have increased leaving more room for the settings and shortcuts that had to be previously set in the hamburger menu were being moved to bottom navigation bars. The hamburger menu also does not play well with the full gestural navigation introduced in Android 10. This was the main factor in the decision to remove and replace the hamburger menu.

The Play Store is one of the first apps to have been edited to better suit the new user interface in Android 10, but it certainly will not be the last. Many developers are already making updates for existing apps to adapt to the new gestural user interface that is being introduced in Android 10.

Via: AP.

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