Part of Google’s Material You design philosophy is a renewed focus on widgets, revitalizing a stale look that has plagued the platform for years. Some of those widgets sport some odd designs, but they still fit into Android 12’s overall appearance pretty well. We didn’t expect Google Drive to be one of the apps to get a brand-new interactive tool, but that’s exactly what’s happened with the app’s latest update — and it’s sporting a pretty unique look as well.
Google recently announced Material You updates to several of its Workspace apps, with Drive kicking it all off last week. The app recently received a second revision to its new design, adding an oddly-shaped widget with quick access to file searches, uploads, and more (via 9to5Google). “Drive quick actions,” as it’s called in Android 12’s widget picker, replaces the old action bar with identical shortcuts but a brand-new look.
Left: Drive’s old widget. Middle: Drive’s icon in the widget picker. Right: All three widget variations.
In a strange twist, the widget picker displays a pretty standard icon for its shortcuts, but as soon as it’s added to your home screen, it takes on a different shape altogether. Resizing it ditches the X-shape for a standard bar layout while shrinking it down to a 2×1 shortcut removes everything but the upload icon. As with the app itself, it pulls colors directly from your wallpaper, so if you don’t like its chosen accents, you’ll need to change up your backdrop.
If you’re running Android 12, this widget is accessible via Google Drive v2.21.357.x. Grab it using the Play Store link below, or skip the wait and download the APK directly from APK Mirror.
