WhatsApp wasspotted working on a bottom bar for its Android appin early April 2023. Then, the company rolled out thenew navigation style to a limited set of beta testersearlier this month. Now, the company seems to have widened the scope of its testing and rolled out the bottom navigation bar more widely. The Meta-owned messaging service already uses this navigation style on its iPhone app, with the Android app sticking to a tabbed interface so far.
Google’s design language for Android appsrecommends using a bottom navigation bar, so this change from WhatsApp would align with that. Plus, this interface will aid one-hand use on thebest Android phones, as the touch targets would be easier to reach from your thumb.
AsWABetaInforeports, there’s one change that’s annoying users with the new interface: the inability to swipe between tabs. This is currently possible in WhatsApp’s tabbed interface, but the bottom navigation bar does not allow for switching between tabs with a swipe. Instead, you must tap on a tab to switch to it.
This would be the first significant interface change that WhatsApp is making to its Android app in years. Interestingly, the messaging platform was among the first few Android apps to adopt Material Design in 2015. Since then, though, WhatsApp has rolled out limited interface changes to its app.
you may grab the latest WhatsApp beta for Android to gain access to the redesigned interface on your phone. If the layout does not change after the update, some users claim force stopping and re-launching the app does the trick. Your mileage may vary, though, as a server-side push is seemingly involved as well.
Given the wide rollout, it should only be a matter of time before WhatsApp makes the bottom navigation bar available to users on the stable channel.
