Google Docs update reveals more Material 3 Expressive and new filters in the pipeline

Andrew Romero | Sep 23 2025 - 9:21 am PT

Google Docs is reportedly adding more Material 3 Expressive elements and several UI tweaks in an upcoming update.

Found in an APK teardown, Android Authority posted a few new screenshots of what’s likely an upcoming update to Google Docs on Android. The Google Docs update makes a few small changes, with two catering to functions like new filters.

The Docs app is getting more of the Material 3 Expressive touch with new FAB icons in the main file view. After opening the app, users are greeted with a grid or list of sorted documents. A small plus icon in the bottom right makes two buttons appear – Choose template and New document.

In the upcoming update, it looks like the plus icon itself is taking up more real estate on the screen. The two buttons that appear after tapping it also take up more space, and all of them bring a Material 3 Expressive color scheme and more uniform appearances. The two options show up as pills instead of separated, rounded icons.

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This comes as the app and several others recently gained access to Material 3 Expressive for the first time.

Google Docs’ search function is getting filters in this update, too. Type, People, and Modified filters appear at the top under the search bar. These options work in a similar way that Google Workspace filters work on web and in other apps. This allows for more narrow searches in the Docs app, which has been missing in comparison to Google Drive, for instance.

The last feature to get a tweak is text formatting. Inside a document, the Text format option looks to appear at the bottom of the page, rather than the top. Tapping it expands the bottom bar with more format options, and scrolling through will show additional tools.