Google Keep goes minimalist, simplifies design with new floating button

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Get ready for the Google Keep app to look a little different the next time you open it up. The Android app is getting a redesign that streamlines the look and introduces a new floating action button (FAB).

In the past, if you looked at the bottom of the screen in the Keep app, you would see a bar. This bar had four options to choose from including list, drawing, audio, and photo. To the right of those options, there was also a button for adding a new note. That bottom bar is now gone in the latest version of the Android app, as reported by 9to5Google.

The button meant for creating a new note has now been converted into an all-purpose FAB. Tapping on the FAB will present the option to create a new note along with most of the other options that were offered on the bar. The key word is “most,” as the option to create an audio note has disappeared. As you can see in the screenshot below, each option is now contained in a pill-shaped housing.

The redesign ultimately minimalizes the UI in the app, making it look sleeker and a little more modern than before. A nice little benefit from this redesign is the extra screen real estate so you can see more at a single glance. The drawback, however, is adding a new note, list, drawing, or photo is now a two-step process instead of a single step.

This is apparently a server-side update for version 5.24.432.x of Google Keep. At the time of writing, this change has yet to be seen in the iOS version of the app.

In related news, we recently reported that Keep could soon get some new note types and new tools. One of these new additions is handwritten notes, which would be different from the drawing option.

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