Key findings
- The Google News app for Android may soon update its navigation bar by reducing the number of tabs from four to three.
- This comes at the expense of the For You and Headlines tabs, which may be located in a new Home tab.
- However, since the new Home tab is still in early development, it is not expected to be available in the app anytime soon.
Today, it’s much easier to get your daily dose of news on a variety of topics than it was a decade or two ago. Thanks to apps like Google News, you can get news from select sources delivered instantly to your device, with the added convenience of widgets on Android’s home screen. The app doesn’t usually undergo too many changes visually, the last major update being the addition of Material You widgets over a year ago. But it looks like the Google News app is preparing a relatively major upgrade that will see some items in the navigation bar removed and rearranged.
Currently, the Google News app navigation bar includes options like For you, Headlines, FollowedAnd NewsstandAccording to Android Authority, which has scoured the Google News app, Version 5.115.0.670880469, One of these options could be lost, reducing the number of tabs to just three.
A closer look at the old and redesigned navigation bar reveals that the For You and Headlines tabs have been replaced by a new one. Home tab. While the Follow and Newsstand options remain in the updated design, the Home tab isn’t quite ready for use yet, Android Authority discovered.
Don’t expect this change to happen anytime soon
Current Google News navigation bar compared to the version under development
While reducing the number of tabs in the navigation bar is a big change, it’s obvious that the feature isn’t ready yet. If you look closely at the screenshot on the right, you’ll notice that both items on the Home tab have a significantly older date, suggesting that Google still has work to do before this updated design can be rolled out across the board.
Since the Home tab is not currently fully functional, it is unclear what its contents will look like. The natural assumption is that the app will use the contents of the existing For you And Headlines tabs. However, both tabs serve a different purpose. The For you offers a personalized collection of news, while the Headlines provides a general overview of the most important news for a more comprehensive understanding of current events.
As always, it’s important to remember that discovering a hidden feature doesn’t automatically mean it will be included in the app, but if Google does make this change, it will be interesting to see how the app handles consolidating its two primary tabs.
