Google rolls out Illustrations tool to Contacts on Android

Back in September of 2021, Gmail gained a new “Google Illustrations” tool that lets you create a custom profile pic, and it’s now available in Google Contacts.

At launch, this feature let you create a custom Google profile photo for your account. In Contacts for Android, it’s available when editing any contact. “Illustrations” appears as the first tab next to “Google Photos” and “Device photos.”

The collections (animals, cities and places, food, hobbies and interests, nature, and sports and recreation) are unchanged, but Google has certainly added more to each of the subcategories since launch.

After you select an image and you’re in the editor, there’s a new “Quick crops” feature that highlights interesting parts of an image and joins the other color tools that make Google Illustrations quite immersive.

This change rolled out to Google Contacts fairly recently.

Meanwhile, Google Messages introduced a branded FAB (floating action button) a few weeks ago. “Start chat” is now accompanied by the Message logo that Google uses for the app’s Themed icon.

Speaking of the app, A/B tests on the redesigned photo picker, delivery/read indicators, or reacting with any emoji have yet to widely roll out, though group E2EE is seeing somewhat broader availability. 9To5Google