Google App Showing New Bottom Toolbar For Search, Discover Pages

The Google app on Android has long made use of a Chrome Custom Tab and there’s now a new toolbar when opening Search results and Discover articles.

At the moment, all controls are placed in the top bar: Close tab, Minimize tab, Site info, page name and domain (which you can long-press to copy the URL), Share link, Add to collection, and the overflow menu. This results in a very cramped strip with the page name barely appearing.

Now, pages you open in the Google app, including Discover articles and Search results, feature a bottom toolbar with Save, Search, and Share. This is still a Chrome Custom Tab.

Current vs. new

This new UI does not appear for pages opened through Google Lens or Circle to Search. More of the page title can be read, while the one-handed access to the system Share sheet is quite nice. Being able to perform a new search from something you’ve read is also convenient.

The bottom toolbar, like the top bar, disappears as you scroll, with the impact to available real estate minimal. The “Open in Chrome browser” transition remains straightforward.

We’re seeing this in testing with the latest Google app beta (version 16.1.38). It’s not yet in the stable channel.