After beta testing earlier this month, the Google app on Android is rolling out a redesign of the Search bar homescreen widget to all users.
The previous design was simply a pill-shaped container with the ‘G’ logo at the left. Towards the right side you get an optional shortcut, microphone for voice input, and Google Lens.
Old vs. new
Today’s redesign places that original Search bar — sans custom action — into another container. The shortcut is placed into a circle and moved to the right. This separation helps make it so that the three buttons don’t appear too cluttered side-by-side. If you disable the shortcut, this widget is still placed in the container but goes nearly edge-to-edge.
This new widget is slightly taller than before, thus aligning with Material 3’s thicker search fields and Expressive’s penchant for placing everything in containers. Overall, it takes after the Circle to Search redesign from the start of this year.
The background container lets you see your background wallpaper even if the Transparency slider is set to 0% on the Customize page. The inner shapes will always be darker than the exterior.
The minimum width to have all four buttons — the ‘G’ just opens the Google app — appear is 4×1 instead of 3×1. This might disrupt some homescreen layouts.
We’re seeing the Search bar widget redesign with Google app 16.19 as part of a server-side update (try a Force stop of the application). It remains to be seen whether Google will eventually update the Pixel Launcher’s search bar, and if it will gain the custom shortcut.
More on Google app:
- Google app rolls out ‘Activity’ tab with Search history, more on Android
- New Google ‘G’ logo comes to favicon, Search widget with Dynamic Color, more
- Google adds AI Mode to the Search bar on Android, iOS
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