Besides the updated ‘&’ logo, Google today detailed a redesign of Arts & Culture for Android, while marking the occasion with Poem Postcards.
Google is greatly simplifying Arts & Culture to three tabs (in the tall Material You bottom bar). The app bar uses a turquoise or blue font color, though the main navigation element is black and white. “Explore” lets you “delve into a myriad of cultural topics such as art, food, fashion, craft and science.” You can find the various categories, as well as the main “Highlights” feed, in a top carousel.
There’s then another carousel of highlights for each, with the ability to filter each feed by type (Artifacts, Stories, 3D, etc.) and Place, Subject, or Topic. Once you’re viewing a piece, Arts & Culture will surface a “variety of related cultural content to continue your exploration.”
For example, start your journey with Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and the flywheel will unearth cross-cultural connections presenting other depictions of jewelry across regions and time.
Next up is the “Play” tab where you can find games and camera tools like Art Selfie or the Blob Opera. Finally, there’s a Shorts-esque “Inspire” feed that shows one work per page with a scroll up to see more and the ability to favorite. Google will show an “always-changing and personalized stream of cultural highlights to brighten your day.”
To mark this Arts & Culture redesign, which is live on Android today (but not optimized for tablets) and coming soon to iOS, Google’s latest experience is called Poem Postcards.
Powered by PaLM 2, you select an artwork and pick whether you want a: Haiku, Free Verse, Sonnet, Acrostic, Villanelle, Limerick, Ode, Elegy, or Ballad. Since these are meant to be sent to others, there’s an optional “For someone who loves” field to personalize.
Just search for a piece of art in the app and there should be a “Poem Postcard” button at the very top of your screen. It can also be launched from the Play tab.
This feature is available now in select countries
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