Google has delivered on its promise to make sharing faster and convenient on its official Google Maps. User complaints about the cumbersome sharing menu on the Google Maps app forced the company behind the world’s biggest search engine to redesign Android’s sharing menu. Google Maps gets a new material design with improvements that are expected to speed up sharing. The long-awaited fix has arrived. The latest version 10.6.1 of Google Maps features a slick new sharing menu that complements the new material design. Previously, the sharing menu was laggy due to flaws largely attributed to the fundamental engineering errors. This resulted in menu items getting stacked haphazardly leading to users tapping on the wrong option or selecting an incorrect menu item.
The revamped configuration of the sharing menu delivers a coherent experience by dividing options into two categories. One is dedicated to sharing with other applications, and the other is for contacts. This simplifies the sharing menu by rearranging items in a decluttered style. Another advantage that comes with is that it prevents icons from stacking on the menu and thus reducing the chances of tapping on the wrong icon for sharing.
There is also a new ‘To’ option users can use to enter contacts, names, phone numbers, messages and other relevant information for sharing. The new sharing menu now features support for Google News which can be accessed directly from the Material design of the Google Map, just as the search engine giant promised back at its I/O conference in mid-2018. This sharing menu is similar to that of Google Photos in terms of look and functionality.
The other changes in the Material Design of Google Maps include cornered edges of the interface and slight font change. The new sharing menu is a big improvement over the previous, rather outdated, style and should serve as a sign of things to expect with most Google Apps in the future. The sharing menu should resolve much of the issues faced by users in the previous design.
