Finally, according to the latest report by 9to5Google, the company is pushing the Material You design for the hub of Android apps and games, the Google Play Store. Google Play Store’s previous design makeover was not received well by users. Mainly because Google buried the option to update apps under multiple layers. To put it in simple words, manually checking for apps update in the Play store now requires additional unnecessary steps. However, if you think Google has fixed this with the new Material You redesign, then you will be disappointed. Actually, the Material You redesign barely scratches the surface of the Google Play Store. The Material You makeover is visually limited to four main homescreen elements. For starters, the search bar adopts the pill shape. This looks aesthetically good, as the profile avatar now has a proper slot to fit in.
The new Material You design is available for Google Play Store version 27.4
The different section indicator of the Play Store is no longer green in color. It now has the dynamic color preset, which matches the color of the search bar field just above it. Last but not the least, the bottom bar now gets individual pill-shaped highlights. Previously, the bottom bar was a rectangle box, with green color highlights for different sections. So, that’s about it with the changes that the Material You design brings in for Google Play Store. You won’t find any changes with the app listings, or the Manage apps & devices page. The limited changes are justifiable, as the Play Store already has elements that keep it modern and in symmetry with the changes brought with Android 12. This could very well be the reason behind Google not adding tons of visual changes to the Google Play Store. Do note that the redesign is not available widely. It was spotted for Google Play Store version 27.4. You can check the version of the Google Play Store installed on your phone, by heading over to Settings > About > Play Store version. If there are no changes visible, then you should wait for your chance, as this is a server-side update. Meaning, there’s barely anything that you could do to trigger this new redesign feature. We expect the rollout to finish before the arrival of Android 12 for Pixel phones.
