Google Phone’s latest UI test brings it even closer to the iPhone (APK teardown)

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

One of the prominent feelings with the launch of the Pixel 9 series has been how close the Pixel lineup has gotten to emulating the iPhone in its look and feel. The new Pixel 9 series phones are somewhere between the Pixel 8 and the iPhone 16 (which, in turn, is quite the same as the iPhone 15). It seems Google isn’t stopping there, as the latest UI change spotted on the Google Phone app changes the incoming call screen to make button behavior even closer to the iPhone.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

With the latest Phone app update, v145.0.672690850, Google is testing a new UI for the incoming call screen.

Currently, when you receive an incoming call on your phone (which has the Google Phone app installed and not any OEM Phone app with the same name), the Google Phone app displays a button with the phone icon. You can either swipe up to answer the call or swipe down to reject the call. You can see the current UI in the screenshots below:

The new test opts for a two-button layout for call management. There is a dedicated red button on the left to decline the call and a dedicated green button on the right to answer the call. You can see the screenshots, provided by Telegram user iDeepak_Sharma, to see the test in action:

If the new test UI looks familiar, you are right. Many other Android OEMs use a dedicated button UI for incoming calls. However, OEMs like Samsung place the accept button on the left and the decline button on the right. On the other hand, Apple places the decline button on the left and the accept button on the right.

We couldn’t activate the feature on our end, so the upcoming changes are likely being tested through server-side switches. Google hasn’t announced the change yet, so this is still very much a test and not a confirmed change, so user feedback could decide its future.

It’s not surprising that the Google Phone app is changing its button placement to match that on some of the most popular phones around. The Google Phone app is not only present on Pixel smartphones but also preloaded on some phones by OEMs like Xiaomi and OnePlus. One could argue that the button placement on the Phone app thus becomes more popular than the iPhone (considering the popularity of Android phones), but the writing is now on the wall that we could be moving towards a more consistent look across mobile operating systems.

How do you like this new incoming call UI? Vote in the poll below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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