WhatsApp for Android: Why is the bar at the bottom now and not at the top?

• WhatsApp is currently testing a new design for the Android app.
• The navigation bar slides from the top to the bottom edge here.
• The messenger adapts the Android version to the iOS app.

Google is currently trending for WhatsApp search queries such as “bottom bar” or “top bar gone”. Apparently, the messenger has started to increasingly play out a design change in the app. This only affects the Android version of the messenger. So far, this has contained the navigation bar at the top of the screen, which you can use to switch between chats, status and calls as well as your communities. Now she has migrated to the lower ones.

WhatsApp adapts the design of the Android version to that of the iOS app. Here the bar has been at the bottom of the screen for a long time. An advantage: the navigation bar below also contains a description in text form for each symbol. So you no longer have to puzzle over what the new symbols in the Messenger’s main menu are all about.

Switching via swipe is no longer possible

However, the change is not well received by many. One thing in particular resonates with the community. It is currently no longer possible to switch between the individual areas of the messenger via swipe, several users on Twitter complain.

It remains to be seen whether WhatsApp will provide this functionality later. Because it is also missing in the iOS app. The design change is currently still in the testing phase and is probably only available in the beta version of the messenger for Android. It remains to be seen when it will be included in the regular app. WhatsApp recently implemented the option of editing messages afterwards.

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