Yesterday we showed you the design of the Play Music application compatible with Material Design and, in addition, we indicated that little by little all the developments of the Mountain View company will be getting their own version. Well, in this case, it is the turn of one of the most important: Google Drive.
This is the application that is accessed from Android terminals to the online storage service that this company has and that competes directly with Dropbox. The fact is that in previous Google Drive updates support for Android Lollipop was incorporated, but there was no facelift that is expected in a development that includes Material Design completely. But now we can see how this work will look and an example is the images that we leave below:
As you can see, the appearance of Google Drive is much more striking, with more intense colors and a much greater use of whites. In addition, the placement of the usage icons is much more logical since they are more accessible, so the development process is more comfortable and faster (both in handling and execution, since this has also been improved). Incidentally, vertical scrolling is almost completely reduced, which is a great success since this way the most of the information is on a screen.
Material Design in Google Drive: cleaner and more cohesive
The redesign fully adopts the standard of Material Design, with a more transparent interface and consistent elements across mobile, tablet, and web. Google has unified icons and logos For the entire Suite, we've adjusted the colors of the backgrounds and search bar, and refined the animations to make navigation more fluid.
In addition, a clearer organization is appreciated: a bottom navigation menu with shortcuts to favorites, shared folders and file listings, and a home page with cards that highlight recent and relevant content across the device.
A button with a lot of functionalities
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises among the additions that are included in Google Drive is a floating button that is in the lower right with the "+" symbol. This opens a whole range of possibilities to be executed with development, such as uploading a file, taking a photo to save or accessing related applications such as Docs or Slides. That is to say, that in this way you can continue to do all the usual options in Google Drive without problems. This we believe is a success.
The truth is that the visual change in this application is very large, a clear example is that the information shown in a folder is the same as before, but the way to present it now is a lot more striking and accessible. The fact is that the new version of Google Drive compatible with Material Design will bring news, and as soon as we have the corresponding APK we will update this article so that it can be downloaded.
Smart Start and Filters: Find what's important sooner
Google introduces a page Home optimized that relies on machine learning algorithms to offer personalized suggestions of files and folders. These recommendations consider signals such as recently opened, shared, or edited documents, and even those attached to Calendar events.
Along with this, come the filter cards (type chips) to narrow your search by file type, person, modification date, or location. This makes locating a specific document much faster and more precise, without having to manually search through folders.
Another relevant new feature is that, when entering drive.google.com, the landing page changes from “My Drive” to "Start"If you prefer, you can set “My Drive” as your default from the banner on the Home page, maintaining your usual workflow.
Dark Mode, Material 3, and ecosystem-wide consistency
The new Material Design style is accompanied by advances towards Material 3 and Dynamic Color, inheriting the system accent color for a more seamless experience. Google has been rolling this consistency out to apps like Gmail, Maps, and the Play Store, with a account switch unified and common components.
Drive is also moving forward with the dark mode, which is being activated gradually for some users. On certain devices running Android 9 or higher, it can be enabled by turning on power saving or the dark theme from developer options. In testing phases, only the loading screen may change while the main interface remains clear, depending on the rollout by region and version.
Document scanning and camera: improved productivity
The scanned document editor adopts the style Material 3 Expressive- The preview takes up almost the entire screen, with essential controls right below it for easy cropping, rotating, deleting pages, or rescanning. The new thumbnail carousel makes it even easier. reorder pages drag and drop, delete individual elements or redo changes without losing focus.
Access to the scanner remains simple: just touch the icon camera, focus, and wait for the system to detect the outline of the document. Automatic capture reduces errors and speeds up the process. Plus, you can import images from the gallery and instantly convert them to PDF, rename on the fly, and choose the destination folder with smart title suggestions.
Deployment and Management: Update for Everyone
Google is rolling out the redesign in a way automatic and progressive to personal users, without any intervention. In the enterprise environment, Google Workspace administrators have controls to manage the pace of rollout and conduct testing before general activation, ensuring smooth and seamless adoption.
With the aim of improving productivity by organizing the elements within the program, Google announced on its official blog a new look for Google Drive. «Today, we're excited to introduce the latest set of changes that accelerate user productivity in the new Drive views. A new home page Optimized for Drive makes it easier and faster to find the files that matter most to you.
Other applications for your terminal with Google's operating system can be found at applications for your terminal Android Help, where there are all kinds and surely you will find more than one that you find interesting.
Source: Android Police.
The result of all these changes is a clearer, faster, and more consistent experience: unified interface, intelligently suggested content, more visible shortcuts and document scanning that saves steps. If you use Drive daily, you'll notice that you find what you're looking for faster and that creating or organizing files requires fewer taps.