GoKawiilAndy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR Google Drive shows early evidence of work on a new account switching interface.
While functionality identical, the new UI is much more compact.
That change could reduce excess scrolling in apps with lots of content on this screen.
Some of us will go our entire lives working with just one Google account, but for those of us who do need to juggle multiple accounts, whether for work or school, the company’s Android apps blessedly make it relatively easy to jump back and forth between those different roles. Every once in a while, though, Google likes to tweak its approach to exactly how we make that switch, and today we’re previewing what look like some upcoming changes to the account switcher UI.
Across Google’s Android apps, the account switcher appears as a largely consistent experience — tap your user icon, whether you’re in Gmail or Drive, and you’ll find the same options for changing accounts, account management, and adding new ones. We were recently crawling through Google’s new version 2.26.217.9.all.alldpi release of Drive, and we’ve spotted some early work on a new layout for this screen.
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Right now, your account switcher looks like the screen below, on the left. But once the changes in this new Drive release go live, that interface could start looking like the two screens on the right.
Our main takeaway is that this new look is just a lot tighter. Google drops the friendly salutation entirely, shrinks your user photo and integrates both it and your email into the collapsible switcher, and slides that “Manage your Google account” button down below everything. We also see the screen lose its explicit “Switch account” text.
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