On Android tablets, Google Drive introduces a new circular Material You widget design.
Google revealed last week that it is improving widgets for Android tablets. The revised Google Drive widget is now available, with an intriguing circular shape that is unique to Material You.
Google is explicitly improving the "Drive Quick Actions" with shortcuts to swiftly open a new Docs, Sheets, or Slides document. This takes the position of the + icon in the bar, which previously only accessed the bottom creation sheet.
This new shortcut joins the others in making it easier to access, search, upload, and start Drive. Everything is placed in a 32 arrangement by default.
However, by raising the size of the widget, the Google Drive widget transforms into a circle that looks more like a knob. This is a new form for Material You widgets, which previously had an X shape (or petal). It's certainly eye-catching, but it only works effectively for apps with a lot of shortcuts.
This new circular widget arrangement is available on tablets with Google Drive version 2.22.357.1. This new design is not visible on Android phones.
Portrait vs. landscape
Google has also been rolling out a modified Keep widget that shifts from a sidebar to a bottom bar since last week. We're still waiting for the dual-pane view to become widely available.
In the meanwhile, Google is bringing multi-instance functionality for Docs, Sheets, and Slides to Android. This allows you to have two windows open at the same time and will be fully released in the coming days. Google Drive has previously received a similar change.
Smartphones
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