Google testing out iOS-like indicators for app updates

For those who own an iOS device, you might be familiar with the progress animation that Apple uses when apps are being updated. This includes greying the app icon out, changing the name to “Pending” or “Installing”, and also showing a circular progress bar while the app downloads the update and installs itself.

If you like that kind of animation and style, you’ll be pleased to learn that Google will be testing out something similar for Android as well. According to a report from Android Police, it seems that a small select group of Android users are seeing this test, where as you can see in the screenshot above, Google has changed the way Android apps look like when they’re being updated.

We can’t say for sure if this is going to be a confirmed change or if Google is simply testing the idea out before deciding it isn’t for them. It won’t be 100% similar to iOS which uses a sweeping clock kind of animation. Instead, this will show a progress bar ringing the app icon to indicate how much of the update is left.

To be fair, we’ve never really had an issue with how Android updates its apps. Most of the time it’s left to update automatically so we never really see it take place, but in case you prefer these kinds of visual indicators, then this could be a change to look forward to.

Source: Android Police