Google Maps is getting a fresh coat of paint, although you might not notice it at first glance. Following the launches of the Pixel 10 family and Android 16, Google’s rollout of Material 3 Expressive updates slowed down, but 9to5Google reports Maps is now catching up with some design refinements that should make the app feel more consistent with the rest of Android 16.
A much-appreciated anchor
Particularly helpful for one-handed use
The new button placement vs. the old.
The most visible change is the carousel for key actions — Directions, Start, Ask (Gemini), Call, Save, Share — which is now permanently docked to the bottom of the screen. Previously, this row of buttons would sit near the top of the Overview tab and scroll out of view as you browsed. Keeping it anchored makes one-handed use much easier, especially when you’re deep-diving into reviews or photos of a place and need quick access to navigation.
Speaking of tabs, Google has shifted the Overview, Reviews, Photos, Updates, and About tabs to sit above the image previews, cleaning up the layout. There are also subtle tweaks to the way ratings, distance, and other location info are displayed under the place name, giving the whole page a bit more breathing room.
The new place details fields, and how they looked before.
On the design side, Maps is finally taking advantage of Material 3 Expressive containers for its place details. The old faint line separators are gone, replaced by rounded, pill-like buttons and subtle background shading for fields like the address, website, and phone number. It’s a small touch, but it modernizes the UI and makes information easier to parse at a glance.
The core map view itself remains unchanged, and Maps still doesn’t use Dynamic Color — so don’t expect it to match your wallpaper theme just yet. But the design update does align better with the rest of Google’s apps and is an overall step forward.
These changes are showing up in Google Maps beta version 25.37.x, though the rollout appears to be server-side. If you’re running the beta and don’t see the redesign yet, you may need to wait a bit longer before it hits your device. And, now that Material 3 Expressive’s full rollout is nearing completion, maybe Google can move onto more practical adjustments.
