Material 3 Expressive switched back to a shorter bottom bar, but not all apps — like Google Home — adopted that at launch. That has now changed.
Google Home for Android now conforms to this Material 3 Expressive update. The flexible navigation bar (as it’s officially referred to) is shorter, while the text label has also been tweaked.
In practice, you don’t meaningfully see any more content with this small change, but consistency across apps is always nice.
Old vs. new


On that note, other first-party apps that still have the tall bottom bar despite otherwise getting M3 Expressive redesigns include Phone by Google and Pixel Journal. Some apps like Google Maps and the Play Store, as well as all the YouTube clients, never switched over during the Material 3 era.
The updated Google Home bottom bar rolled out as a server-side update, though version 4.3 is now widely rolling out on Android. This change is not yet on iOS.
More on Google Home:
- Google keeps finding the most clever ways to use AI – I can’t wait to see what’s next
- Google Home app previews ‘significant’ device controller redesign, local Matter control
- IKEA’s new lights, sensors, and remotes work with Google Home through Matter, and they’re super cheap
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Comments