Google testing drastically redesigned Assistant Updates feed

Abner Li | Oct 31 2019 - 12:00 am PT

Google Assistant’s “Updates” feed provides a visual overview of your day that’s reminiscent of the original Google Now. A drastically different design that organizes information chronologically is now being tested on Android.

One Brazilian user this evening opened Assistant Updates to find a new iteration of the feed. Like the current design, there’s a personalized greeting up top and profile avatar in the right corner, but it’s smaller.

The key difference in this Google Assistant Updates redesign is how cards are arranged by date. Items that might be useful or relevant “Today” are presented first. In this example, the “Weather” is listed with Google noting the current city. An icon at the left is followed by the temperature and condition with high/low underneath.

A chevron expands the card to reveal an hourly forecast, while shortcuts — possibly for Assistant searches — let you see the weather for “Tomorrow,” “This week,” and “This weekend.” Overflow menus slide up sheets with options like switching units, dismissing cards, and opening settings. The weather card adopts a nice aqua background that stands out against the bright feed.

Other sections are for “Next week” and “Later next month.” Cards here include calendar events, but deliveries (from Gmail) would also make sense. Basic information is noted, while each appointment can be expanded to reveal guests or access “View in Calendar.”

The Google Assistant Updates redesign signals a shift from organizing cards by topic — “Coming up for you” and “Keep track of things” — to a more straightforward timeline that might be more clearly arranged for users. This is a very limited A/B test and not live on any device we checked today. It could also be an early iteration with the final design likely featuring more information.