Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google appears to be working on a redesign of the Library tab.
- An APK teardown has revealed that the Library tab could renamed to “Collections.”
- The redesign could remove the carousel and add square cards for People, Albums, Documents, and more.
The Library tab in the Google Photos app is where you can go to look at your albums, check your on-device folders for images, and access shortcuts (Favorites, Utilities, Archive, and Trash). But it looks like the Library tab could undergo a big shift that will change the tab’s name and its UI.
In an APK teardown of the Photos app, conducted by 9to5Google, it was discovered that Google may be working on a redesign for the Library tab. The outlet was able to enable the redesign, which appears to relabel the Library tab to Collections.
In addition to the name change, the page itself has gone through some changes as well. While all four shortcuts are still available and present at the top of the page, they appear more rounded and ovular than before. There are also three additional shortcuts that are located at the bottom of the page which include “Screenshots,” “Videos,” and “Recently Added.”
The biggest change, however, is the absence of the on-device carousel that was located right under the shortcuts. Instead, the Collections tab turns the on-device carousel into a card that’s joined by four others including “People,” “Albums,” “Documents,” and “Places.” Each card shows a preview of the items they contain.
According to the publication, some of these cards offer the same experience as you get when you navigate to the Search tab. However, some do offer a significantly different experience. It seems the goal of this redesign was to clean up some of the clutter that clogging up the tab.
Speaking of clutter, it was also discovered today in a report from PiunikaWeb that there are strings of code for a “hide clutter” option. This option would hide backed-up photos like screenshots, GIFs, and memes from your main Photos tabs.
