Last year, Google promised to bring a better design language to its apps to take advantage of bigger screens on foldable phones and tablets. And the company has delivered on its promise with many apps, including Google Photos, Google Keep, Google Play Store, and Google TV, getting better layouts. Now, it looks like a similar design update will come to the Google News app.
Screenshots posted in the Google News Telegram group (spotted by Android Police) reveal that Google News is getting a better layout and design for tablets. The most significant change is that the navigation rail (tabs) are getting shifted from the bottom to the right side of the screen when the tablet is used in landscape mode. The other change is that each news article or story in the news feed has a card-style layout.
The search bar has also transformed from a rectangle to rounded corners, reminiscent of the Material You design language used in other apps. It also appears that some wallpaper-inspired colors will be used in the app, adhering to the Material You (MD3) design guidelines. The update hasn't started rolling out yet, but we can soon expect it (version 5.72) to hit the beta channel in the coming days.
Even after installing the latest version of the app, not everyone could see the new design as it may require server-side activation, and Google may activate it randomly to a few beta testers.
