Google redesigned its Contacts Android app and introduced a number of other changes to it, including a significantly improved Account Switcher. The Mountain View-based Internet giant started pushing out the Contacts 2.0 build earlier this week and the software update should now be available for download on eligible devices in all parts of the world. Following the new update, Contacts features a new overlay window designed to facilitate the process of managing one’s contacts list by providing users with the option of quickly selecting, labeling, moving, sharing, and deleting their contacts. The overlay menu is available from the main user interface of the app that otherwise wasn’t radically changed.
Unlike the basic contacts list, the profile view window was redesigned in a significant manner with the latest app update. The new section now features round profile pictures of one’s contacts that have replaced the massive square frames present in the previous version of the app. The change results in a cleaner, more minimalist user interface, though the redesign was seemingly only made for aesthetic purposes and the new profile view section isn’t any more usable than the old one seeing how the space that Google freed up with this change isn’t used for anything. The information cards located below the profile picture of a contact are now presented in a different order, with phone numbers being displayed above email addresses. Finally, the app now also features a more accessible Account Switcher that can be used for jumping between Google accounts in just three taps, while the overall design of the service has been slightly washed out, with less vivid colors being present on the screen. Refer to the gallery below to see how the latest version of Google’s Contacts looks in practice.
The new build of Contacts doesn’t change the software requirements of Google’s app that’s still compatible with virtually all smartphones and tablets running Android 5.0 Lollipop and later versions of the omnipresent operating system. If your Contacts app still wasn’t updated automatically, you can prompt it to do so manually by following the Google Play Store link beneath this writing.
