Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Pixel Recorder app has received a visual overhaul in line with Google’s Material 3 Expressive style.
- Expect changes like a larger play button, more prominent toggles, and larger waveforms.
- The app also takes a step back by moving some useful shortcut icons into the three-dot menu.
The Recorder app is one of my favorite Pixel phone features, owing to its on-device transcriptions, cloud backup functionality, and web-based access. Over the years, the app has also gained features like speaker labels and summarization capabilities. Now, it’s receiving a fresh coat of Material 3 Expressive paint.
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The latest version of the Recorder app on the Play Store (h/t: 9to5Google) has just received a visual overhaul with some Material 3 Expressive stylings. We can confirm receiving this redesign in version 4.2.20250529.793975458. Check out the screenshots below.
The homepage still seems largely identical to previous versions, albeit with a pill-shaped and different-colored search bar. Meanwhile, the toggles in the settings menu have received a Material 3 Expressive redesign in line with other Google apps. These changes make it easier to see which ones have been enabled or disabled.
Tap on a recording, and you’ll see a notably changed screen here. We’ve got more prominent waveforms, while the round play button has been replaced with a huge, oblong play button. Furthermore, the search, favorite, trim, and sharing icons have been folded into the three-dot menu. This particular change seems like a step back for convenience, as an extra tap is now required to reach these icons. Begin a recording session, and you’ll notice the delete and save buttons are gone in favor of pause and stop buttons. Both the recording and playback screens no longer have “Audio” and “Transcript” text on these respective buttons.
This is just the latest Google app to receive a fresh coat of paint ahead of Android 16’s Material 3 Expressive overhaul. Other notable apps in this regard include Google Keep, Google Clock, Google Phone, and Google Contacts.
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