Google is pushing an important update to its Recorder app for the Pixel lineup. The new version brings an optimized UI on large-screen devices such as tablets and foldables. The update comes ahead of the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold release next month.
Before this update, the Recorder app didn’t offer a tablet-specific UI. It was just the landscape mode for phones, which isn’t bad but doesn’t fully utilize the additional screen space on tablets. Google is now fixing that with a new dual-column layout. The new version of the app (version 4.2.20230427.530752515, according to 9to5Google) lists your recordings in two columns on the homescreen. The record button has been moved to the bottom right corner to use the large screen more efficiently.
When playing a recording, the app now shows both the waveform and transcript side-by-side. Earlier, you could only see one of the two at a time. As noted by 9to5Google, this redesign is similar to the recorder.google.com layout on the web. The updated layout moves the playback controls to the bottom right corner and the edit button to the other corner. Last but not least, the recording UI adopts the same dual-column layout that shows the waveform and transcript side-by-side. The action buttons appear in the same place too, while the recording timer is on the bottom left.
More than 50 Google apps now offer optimized tablet UI
This UI revamp for Recorder on big-screen devices is an outcome of Google’s renewed interest in tablets. The company started showing more affection for this device category a couple of years back with the launch of Android 12L. Since then, it has gone on to update dozens of its first-party Android apps with tablet-specific optimizations. Recorder is joining the likes of Clock, Lens, Calculator, Workspace tools, Gboard, and more.
During the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet launch earlier this month, Google revealed that it has updated more than 50 of its apps for large screens. A few more are in line for a similar update in the coming weeks or months, including Google Calendar, Weather, and Gmail. We might see a few of those pick up the changes before the new Google foldable and tablet arrive on the market. Both of these big-screen devices will ship in the second half of June. Meanwhile, you can click the button below to download the latest version of the Recorder app for your Pixel from the Google Play Store.
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