Material Design is a term we first heard when Google unveiled Android L back at I/O 2014. Its the company’s new design language which it claims to be flexible enough that it can span across different platforms like mobile and desktop while retaining the same look and feel. It provides Android 5.0 Lollipop its new look and feel. Google is also bringing Material Design to its applications and today it announced that Maps for iOS and Android will receive this visual overhaul.
Google says the new look is all about echoing the real world with material feel, layers and buttons. Tapping on a place’s info sheet at the bottom of the screen will bring up a gliding info layer which will display photos, reviews and additional information about that place. “Explore” gets baked in as well. Tapping this button, which is located at the bottom of the map, will bring up new places to dine and visit.
Apart from the visual overhaul, the Google Maps application now also allows you to make table reservations at restaurants right within the app. So when you’re figuring out the route to a new restaurant you can reserve your table within the app, provided that restaurant is found on OpenTable. This feature is available to users in the U.S. only.
The Google Maps update will be rolled out for both iOS and Android over the next few days, so keep an eye out.
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