The Google app could soon be blessed with some bottom bar consistency (Update: More layouts)

Update, September 1, 2024 (10:48 AM ET): Code sleuth Leopeva64 on X (formerly known as Twitter) spotted the change earlier. They have also spotted a double-decker bottom bar that adds the Search bar to the button layout. Other layouts are in testing, too.

Original article, August 31, 2024 (10:35 AM ET): Google is testing a few things for the Google app, such as colorful new icon shortcuts that have recently begun rolling out to beta testers. Now, we’ve spotted another change within the Google app, but it goes a level deeper and concerns the browser available within the Google app.

With the latest Google app v15.34.32.28, we’ve spotted three variations for a new bottom bar for the browser inside the Google app. Google uses Chrome Custom Tabs to display external website content, so this change is also courtesy of efforts from the Chrome team.

The current version of Chrome Custom Tabs implementation within the Google app does not have a bottom bar. In the first screenshot, you can see a bottom bar with two icons: one for adding the website to favorites (in collections, not bookmarks) and the other for sharing it forward. In the second screenshot, we can see a third icon in the middle for insights. The third screenshot shows a redistributed arrangement of the same three icons.

Here’s a demo of the bottom bar in action within the Google app’s Chrome Custom Tabs implementation.

When trying to activate the feature, we activated the second screenshot by default, while the other two screenshots required some more messing around. We have seen Google messing around with the search button in the app’s bottom bar, so a bottom bar in the in-app browser will give the two UIs some consistency.

This change is not rolling out to users at the moment. We’ll update the article if and when Google begins rolling this out to end users.