Despite the plethora of cloud storage services available today, Google Drive has stood the test of time with a consistently padded feature set. But, as has been the case for Android tablets, the large-screen mobile app left a lot to be desired. That’s about to change now with Google rolling out a redesign for Drive, which features many of the same interface changes we’ve seen in redesigns to the Contacts app and others. The big picture takeaway? This makes better use of the display area.
The design change begins with the repositioning of the navigation bar from the bottom to the left side of the screen. There is a button above this navigation bar that allows you to collapse or expand its contents. Below that, you’ll find a traditional floating action button followed by tabs for Home, Starred, Shared, and Files, in that order. Additionally, the search bar at the top is limited to only half the width of the screen, a change consistent with the recent redesign of Contacts for tablets.
Side by side comparison photos posted by Google Workspace Updates Blog (via XDA-Developer) gives us a clearer picture of the changes onboard. While the Suggested tabs and Notifications are present with the new design, they take up less space than before.
Thanks to better use of that unused real estate, Drive also gets three small icons in the upper right for Help, Settings, and the user’s Google profile. Finally, more files are visible thanks to this new update with the home screen showing up to 9 of your recent Drive files compared to just two in the older version of the app. Google says the redesign also simplifies the process of checking file details in Drive.
Just over a week ago, the web version of Drive and Docs received a Material You redesign. With the company also making some long-overdue changes for its tablet apps, the stage seems set for the arrival of the Pixel Tablet, possibly around the same time as Google I/O this year.
All users will eventually get this UI change — Rapid Release domains are getting it now while Scheduled Release domains will start receiving it on April 3rd.