Google’s Phone app begins reverting one of its most controversial changes

• The Phone by Google app is now bringing back the Contacts tab to the bottom bar, though it’s currently limited to beta users.
• It’s still unclear when the relocated Contacts tab will appear more widely to users of Google’s dialer app.
• Google moved the Contacts tab to the sidebar last year, with this beta update bringing it back to its original place.

While Google often experiments with design changes in its apps, it surprised Android users by removing the Contacts tab from the Phone app last year. Fast forward to a few days ago, when we exclusively revealed that the tab would return to the bottom bar, and it looks like that day is finally here, at least for some users.

A couple of users on the GApps and Leaks Telegram page report seeing the Contacts tab at the bottom of the page. While we don’t know which versions of the Phone by Google app those users were running, we could surface the bottom bar tab in the latest beta (version 240.0.98) running on a Pixel 9.