This subtle Google Contacts change looks perfect for long names (Updated: Rolling out)

Android Authority –

• Google Contacts is making a small change to how contacts are displayed.
• By sliding names over to the left, Contacts will free up space for longer entries.

Update: October 25, 2024 (2:46 AM ET): The new look in the Google Contacts app is now rolling out with version 4.42.26.688672929. It allows longer contact names to be displayed properly. You can check for the updated app on the Play Store.

Original article: August 29, 2024 (11:27 AM IST): App updates don’t have to be game-changing to be worth doing, and for as much as we might like to see devs delivering bold new features every chance they get, the reality of app maintenance tends to be a lot more restrained. While some of that definitely involves adding new functionality, it feels like many changes are more of the “tweaking the UI” variety. There’s good reason for that, as nailing the subtleties of an app’s interface can really take a lot of fiddling to get right. Today we’re checking out some of the latest efforts along that line when it comes to Google Contacts.

Contacts has seen a solid amount of attention from Google so far this year for app that’s not getting an injection of flashy new AI features. Those changes have included both feature updates, like adding new interaction to the Contacts widget, and smaller UI reconfigurations, like what we saw happening back in March with connected apps.

Looking through Contacts version 4.39, we’re spotting evidence for an upcoming change that could be the next corner of the app’s UI Google seeks to optimize. Unless you were looking at the old and new releases side-by-side like this, we’d forgive you for not even noticing what Google adjusted:

That’s the layout we have now on the left, and while it’s working fine with the contacts you see here, we have to concede that it’s not making the best use of space. Instead, Google seems to be working on tightening that screen up by shifting all the entries over to the side of the screen. That forces the letter separators to slide into the list of contacts itself, which also has the effect of breaking up names into groups. All in all, it seems fine, and we can appreciate how this frees up space for contacts with especially long names.

So far, this new look is not yet visible in Contacts, but especially considering how minor the stakes are, it feels like Google could follow through and push this change out at any moment. Be on the lookout to see if this new interface hits Contacts on your phone soon.