We’ve seen Google steadily giving its apps Material Design makeovers during the past few months, including Google News & Weather and Chrome. Even the Play Store got a slight refresh with makeover content pages. Now an even newer version of the Play Store has leaked, giving us a preview of the marketplace’s full-on Material Design update.
Several screenshots that claim to show an “early” version of the Play Store 5.0 update have surfaced. The folks at Android Police stress that this is an early preview and so the Play Store 5.0 could look different when it rolls out to the public. Still, there are quite a few changes to be found in this early build.
As you can see in two screens above, the new Play Store (right) is much flatter and sports a hamburger menu that’s floating out there rather than stuck to the side of the screen. Each section of the Store has been tweaked as well, with the color of each area extending from the top of the display down into the menu section, which is currently gray.
Other changes found in the new Play Store include redesigned content pages with larger hero images and overall better looks. As you can see above, the Antenna Sampler looks much more attractive in the Play Store 5.0 screenshot (right).
One other detail that’s worth noting is that there are hints in the Play Store 5.0 code that Google is prepping a more powerful device restoration tool. The feature would allow users to restore only certain apps onto a new device rather than having to restore unwanted apps that they’ve installed on other hardware.
Overall this new Play Store 5.0 looks like an improvement over the existing app. It’s more in line with what Google has been doing with its other Material Design makeovers, and the flatter look fits in with other recent design trends in mobile.
What do you think of this Play Store refresh?
Via Android Police
