Modern, but at what cost?
Take it from someone who loves to impulse buy snacks — a grocery list is essential. Google has no shortage of ways to create a shopping list for when you’re headed out, from Keep to a web-based Shopping List tool that syncs with Assistant. The company recently gave the latter a total makeover, providing a fresh coat of paint at the loss of many of the app’s most valuable features.
The folks at 9to5Google spotted these changes, transforming the service from a semi-powerful web-based organizer into a basic checklist. Let’s start with the good news: Shopping List — now renamed “Google Shopping List” — is using Material Design, complete with support for dark mode. You can only do so much when designing a simple list, but at least it matches well with the company’s other apps.
Shopping List’s new design.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news stops. Google has completely stripped much of the functionality out of this app. Checked items still move to the bottom of the list, but they don’t auto-hide under a separate tab. It’s closer to how Keep manages its checklists, without the option to hide completed items. While it’s still easy to tell what item has or hasn’t been completed, the old method completely grayed out the entry rather than relying on a simple line. Meanwhile, images for specific items — like fruits or bread — are gone, leaving the app with a very basic, visually uninteresting layout.
Shopping List’s old design.
It’s also a hell of a lot more confusing now. There are two different ways to add items to your shopping list — a floating action button and a prompt at the top of the screen — with different UIs resulting in the same action. 9to5Google reports these options have also removed autosave, so you have to manually save an item to avoid losing it.
This redesign is the second for the app, which gained some small visual changes in 2018, a year after its initial launch.
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