Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is simplifying how it stores and displays saves and collections inside its Android and iOS apps.
- It is currently testing a new interface with separate tabs for saves and collections.
- The new interface is evidently a work in progress and might change before it becomes a more permanent feature.
The Google app on Android and iOS allows you to bookmark and organize important search results and links to revisit later, grouped under “Saves and collections.” The feature is incredibly useful, but it remains cluttered, and Google previously attempted to improve its utility by adding a search functionality. Now, it is finally working to simplify the interface, which could allow the feature to receive the attention it deserves from users.
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.
Earlier this year, we spotted that Google was testing a new sharing method for collections. Now, we’ve noticed an additional change that may be coming to saves and collections, which primarily includes an entirely new interface. This new interface uses separate tabs to display your saves and collections, and we spotted it buried in version 16.28.59 beta of the Google app for Android.
This change is significant since saves and collections currently have redundant interfaces. You can either access them by tapping Saves and collections from the menu under the profile picker or by tapping the Activity tab in the Google app, both of which show the saved links in two different styles. While accessing them through the overflow menu predominantly focuses on a clustered view, where bookmarks are grouped together based on category (the image on the left), viewing them through the Activity tab shows individual links with dedicated thumbnails for saves (the center image below) and a scrollable carousel.
This new interface is essentially still a work in progress, as my colleague AssembleDebug, who discovered it, was unable to view their saves or collections listed on the page.
Additionally, the current interface redirected us to a webpage outside the Google app. When it’s closer to completion, we can expect Google to integrate the interface directly into the app. Before that happens, we might also see some changes to this rudimentary interface, but will ensure communicating them to you.
