Google Testing in App Browser Redesign with the Bottom Bar in the Google Apps for Android

While Google app worked like a normal search browser with the search bar and all, things changed last year when Google got rid of the Chrome custom tab when opening discover articles and search results. It’s okay if you did not know about this news or you’re an Apple user because we are here to keep you up to date about why did this happen and what changed were brought about.

When you open the discover articles on an Android phone now, you will notice a custom in app at the bottom bar making it easier to search for the app users. This new change on the Google App for Android has differences compared to the previous version. Unlike the previous version of the app, which had controls present on the right hand side of the screen, this version has all the controls and key actions present at the bottom.

So what other changes does the new update bring with it? Users can now steer backwards and forwards, the share option opens the standard android sheet, while the right most button opens a menu with the same five options as before: refresh, open in chrome, find in page, browser settings and send feedback.

The app bar like the previous versions still has a close button on the top left corner whereas the HTTPS lock and domain is centered and the google bookmark feature is placed at the right. Both the strips hide as the user scrolls, providing a better and cleaner look.

This in app browser has its very own site settings as well as the ability to clear browsing history. Users can also enable/disable the ‘safe-browsing’ feature which checks unsafe URLs for the users with the toggle of a button.

Google shows no indication of reverting back to the previous chrome custom tab. So what if the user wants to open the discover article in chrome? Well, the only solution to this problem is directly opening the discover article in chrome.

The redesign of the custom Chrome browser is coming out with the Google app beta version 11.43.

This was a rather huge step taken by Google app for Android phones and since we all know the tech giant is not known to take hasty decisions. We are sure that there must have been a long meeting and thought process behind this decision. However, things worked out in the end for the Tech company and people do not seen to have any objections about the new version of the app up until now.


H/T: 9to5Google.

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