Google Is Working To Make Its iOS Apps Feel More Native To iPhone And iPad

Given the sheer number of iOS users, it wouldn’t make sense for Google to ignore these users. This is why Google actually does a pretty good job of trying to make sure that its iOS and Android apps offer up a similar experience regardless of platform, and that’s a good thing.

However, the downside is that Google might have tried a little too hard, where there have been critics of Google’s iOS apps where it feels like Google doesn’t seem to respect some of iOS’ designs which can result in an inconsistent experience between Google’s iOS apps and other first and third-party apps, but that is changing.

https://twitter.com/featherless/status/1446151509549387781

In a Twitter thread by the staff engineering lead for Google Design on Apple platforms, Jeff Verkoeyen, he revealed that Google is working to try and adopt more standard controls within iOS while at the same time, applying “light branded touches” to its apps to maintain the Google look.

According to Verkoeyen, he said that the main reason Google adopted their previous approach was to share UI components across their apps. It was also because Google felt that they were also filling in gaps in the UIKit, which is Apple’s framework for building apps.

However, Verkoeyen states that UIKit had matured enough over the years for Google’s internal needs, and as such, the company no longer needs to maintain most of the custom components they have built over the years.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apps, Google, iOS