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The redesigned Google Weather app has started to roll out
Several users have reported seeing the new Material You revamp
Google's Weather app is nice and informative, pulling data from weather.com to paint a thorough picture of the forecast, but its UI hasn't seen much attention since its inception. Sure, it picked up a slipshod dark mode earlier this year, but that was mostly a result of a change to Android's underlying WebView system. Now, it appears a full redesign is imminent.
The Google Weather Frog has discarded its COVID-19 mask
Froggy has decided to stop wearing his face mask
Google's Weather Frog is the company's weather widget mascot. The frog can be seen when users type "weather" into their phone's Google search bar. Froggy, as he is popularly known, has also appeared in multiple doodles that celebrate anniversaries or historical events. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weather frog began to appear with a mask covering its face. It was a subtle reminder to users to take necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. After nearly two years, Froggy now appears in the widget, albeit without a mask.
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There's nothing Google loves more than to experiment with redesigns. With the power of server-side updates, you'll often see one of your most-used apps flash an all-new look — before it disappears in the blink of an eye. That's what happened earlier this summer when the classic hamburger menu began disappearing from Google Weather's search bar. After flipping the switch off and on a few times, it seems its redesign is finally here to stay.
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- As reported by 9to5Google, the Weather app redesign is being reverted, possibly due to a bug with switching between and searching for other locations. The hamburger menu lives once again...for now.
The arrival of gesture-based navigation on Android hasn't boded well for hamburger menus, and Google is now actively doing away with them. The Google Play Store recently killed the hamburger menu, and now the Google Weather app is following suit.
Nest Hubs are getting sunrise alarms, family sticky notes, and the Google weather frog wallpaper
Other smart displays too, but some of these are server-side changes
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A big update is rolling out to Nest Hubs and third-party Google Assistant smart displays with lots of cool new features, many of which have been promised or teased/leaked for several months. The changes first started showing up several weeks ago, but are now rolling out to a wider audience. You can now (well, if the features have reached your unit) use your display as a sunrise alarm, put the Google weather frog as a background, leave sticky notes for your family to read, and more.