For the past few months, we have seen Material Design being experimented as it was creeping into both Facebook and Messenger. It looks like Messenger is officially getting Material Design elements to its interface.
Material Design was announced by Google back in mid-2014. Codenamed Quantum Paper, the attractive and infectious new design language was being applied onto all of Google’s own apps, including many other known third-party apps. While Messenger’s interface already has Material Design-esque elements, lead developer David Marcus has announced on his Twitter feed that the new Messenger app with Material Design has started rolling out:
“The brand new Messenger for Android, featuring material design is coming to your phone today!”
Firstly, there is a blue colored bar above, giving the interface a punchier look. Also, the blue bottom bar has been removed, seemingly replaced by a rounded “+” button for initiating new conversations with friends. In a conversation, the toolbar with options have also been shifted to a more sensible position – at the bottom of the typing space. The toolbar is also slightly more simplified, with the omission of the speech recording and location button. The like button has been moved to the toolbar, however, still as annoying as ever with the button still sitting at the bottom right corner, with a risk of accidentally giving your friends an unwanted thumbs up in a conversation.
Messenger is tipped to bring in ads pretty soon as a form of extra revenue for Facebook. What do you think about the newer and simpler design? Let us know your thoughts below!
Source: David Marcus (Twitter)
