Hangouts is finally inching closer to making its Material Design debut.
Android lice captured a build of a forthcoming version 4.0 overhaul shared plenty of screenshots hints of what to expect.
Android lice Hangouts now finally has the interface to match all of ’s other overhauled apps.
A floating action button pulls up a list of contacts, just like you get with Inbox. The conversation list drops the lines between chats, matching the look of ’s Messenger SMS/MMS app.
The smartest-looking changes are targeted at how you share images, stickers, emoji, or your location during a conversation. Currently, you hit a paper clip icon then choose which of these you wish to share. Instead, icons are now accessible on the bottom, which slides up to reveal the images or a map. Notably, has reversed the color scheme: incoming messages are now green your replies are white.
Android lice Adding attachments, emoji, or stickers is a much smoother experience.
Sharing a status that all your contacts can see also gets more prominent play. It’s an interesting choice, as keeping an active status calls back to the days of instant messaging on the desktop with Talk.
Android lice also found there is no reformatted version yet for tablets, an indication still has work to do before pushing this live. But we should be close, especially since so many of ’s other apps have already been made over to the new look.
The story behind the story: Hangouts has been on a haphazard journey. It was once swallowed as part of +, then spit back out without the social network bring. The app integrated Voice features, but the former service still lives on its own. And while Hangouts does SMS MMS messaging, doesn’t recommend using it for that purpose if you’re on oject Fi. Hopefully this latest app overhaul is the start of some clarity for the future of Hangouts, which has a lot going as a solid messaging platform.
