Google Revamps Play Store with New Download Animations

Google continues to bring Material 3 Expressive design to its Android apps. The company has now revamped the Google Play Store, showing new download animations when you update apps. This change is rolling out gradually, so you may not notice it right away.

Crinkled progress ring shows up on the Play Store’s download page

For the uninitiated, Material 3 Expressive is the next generation of Google’s Material Design system. It focuses on deeper personalization, expressive shapes, and more playful animations to create a seamless user experience. Instead of static visuals, this design language aims to make Android more lively.

Now, Google has brought Material 3 Expressive to the Play Store’s download experience. As you can see in the images below (via Android Authority), the digital marketplace now shows crinkled rings around app icons while updates are in progress. Previously, the Play Store used a simple circular progress indicator to show download status. Now, the latest changes give users a more dynamic and expressive way.

Furthermore, you will also see a new expressive loading animation when opening the Downloads page in the Play Store. However, it looks like these tweaks are live for a limited number of users. It is still unclear which version of the Play Store brings the changes. We did not see the new animations on our Galaxy device running the latest Play Store version, 49.7.20-31 [0] [PR] 854325918. As is often the case, this seems to be a server-side rollout.

If you want to check whether the new animations have reached your device, you need to first open the Google Play Store. Now tap your profile icon in the top-right corner and navigate to the “Manage apps and device” section. Then select the “Updates available” option to go to the downloads page. From there, try updating one or more apps to see the new crinkled progress rings. Google should push the changes to everyone in the next few weeks.