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Three years after Android users finally got used to WhatsApp’s last redesign, the company is already tearing it up again. Is anyone actually asking for this, or is WhatsApp just chasing iPhone envy?
WhatsApp is testing a redesigned bottom navigation bar for its Android app, according to a new beta build spotted by WABetaInfo. The floating, rounded bar replaces the flat one that has sat at the bottom of the app since 2024, and it borrows visual cues from the tab bar already used on iOS.
It’s the kind of change you might not clock at first glance, but it’s the equivalent of your kitchen counter suddenly being a different shape. You still find everything; it just feels slightly off until your hand relearns where things are.
What actually changed in this beta
The new navigation bar was found in the WhatsApp APK beta for Android version 2.26.38.10, live on the Google Play Store. Instead of sitting flush against the bottom edge of the screen, the bar now floats above it with rounded corners, separated visually from the rest of the interface. It’s showing up in both light and dark themes, though the change is easier to spot in light mode right now.
WhatsApp isn’t calling this finished. The feature is still under development and hasn’t been switched on for beta testers, so nobody outside WABetaInfo’s discovery has actually used it yet.
Why it looks familiar if you use an iPhone
The floating, rounded style lines up with the tab bar WhatsApp introduced on iOS alongside Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign. That doesn’t mean Android is getting the same translucent, glassy effect. Android has its own design language, so expect the shape to carry over without the see-through finish.
This isn’t the first time WhatsApp has borrowed from its own iPhone design idea. The app has spent the past few years slowly narrowing the gap between how it looks on the two platforms, and this bar is the latest piece of that puzzle.
A navigation bar that’s only three years old
Android users got their current bottom bar back in 2023, when WhatsApp moved chats, communities, updates, and calls from the top of the screen down to the thumb zone. That switch itself was a response to years of people asking for an easier one-handed layout. Now WhatsApp is revisiting that same real estate again, less than three years later.
The timing lines up with a post WABetaInfo shared on X, right before this discovery, asking users what they thought of the current Android interface. Replies flooded in asking for a more modern look. WhatsApp hasn’t confirmed the feedback shaped this redesign, but the sequence of events is hard to ignore.
Part of a bigger visual overhaul
This bar isn’t showing up in isolation. WhatsApp recently rolled out new chat theme categories on Android, and WhatsApp Plus users can already customize accent colors. Put together, it looks like WhatsApp is in the middle of a slow, deliberate refresh of how the entire Android app feels to use, not just one isolated tweak.
When you’ll actually see it
There’s no release window yet. WhatsApp hasn’t turned the feature on for beta testers, and the design itself could still shift before it reaches anyone’s phone. WABetaInfo is continuing to track the beta channel for updates.
If this bar ships the way it looks right now, Android users are getting one more piece of the iPhone experience whether they asked for it or not. The real question is whether that’s actually what people wanted, or just what WhatsApp decided they should have.
