Android app should follow Material Design, not iOS patterns
The recent Android update (12.4.*) introduces design elements directly ported from iOS, creating a non-native experience that ignores platform conventions and reduces usability.
Core issues:
Platform-inappropriate navigation
The fixed bottom tab bar (Chats / Contacts / Settings / Profile) wastes screen space on rarely used sections. Settings and Profile are accessed only occasionally, yet occupy permanent space. This reduces chat visibility and forces extra scrolling—especially problematic on smaller screens and during one-handed use.
Material Design addresses this with navigation drawers or contextual bottom sheets, showing relevant actions only when needed instead of always displaying everything.
Reduced information density
New borders, spacing, and visual effects in chat lists add visual clutter without functional benefit. Users scan dozens of chats regularly—extra noise slows this down and reduces the number of visible conversations per screen.
Inconsistency with platform expectations
Android users expect Material Design patterns because they are consistent across the OS and well-designed apps. Deviating from these creates cognitive friction and makes Telegram feel like a lazy cross-platform port rather than a thoughtfully designed Android app.
Why this matters:
iOS enforces Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines through App Store review. Android does not mandate Material Design, but this freedom should be used to create better native experiences—not to copy-paste iOS designs that don’t fit the platform.
Suggestion:
Design the Android UI according to Material Design principles. Use platform-appropriate navigation patterns, respect Android’s visual language, and optimize for different screen sizes and interaction models expected by Android users.
The desktop and web versions also deserve platform-native designs or their own Telegram style rather than a universal iOS aesthetic.
This redesign is a clear degradation in usability. The bottom dock permanently consumes valuable screen space for functions such as Contacts, Settings and Profile that most users access only occasionally. These are secondary functions and belong behind a menu or drawer, not in an always-visible navigation bar competing with the primary content: chats. On a phone, vertical screen space is limited. Spending part of it on rarely used navigation makes the chat list shorter, adds constant visual clutter and provides very little practical benefit in return. This is not simply a matter of preferring the old visual style. It is a usability regression: frequently used content has been given less space so that infrequently used functions can remain permanently “in your face”. Please provide an option to disable the bottom navigation bar and use the previous menu-based navigation.
I submitted a separate suggestion specifically about the permanent bottom navigation dock, but it appears to have been removed or merged here. I understand merging true duplicates, but this is a distinct usability issue. The problem is not mainly that the new design resembles iOS or differs from Android conventions. The permanent dock itself wastes limited vertical screen space on relatively rarely used functions such as Contacts, Settings and Profile. Chats are the primary content. Giving secondary functions permanent screen space reduces the visible chat area and adds constant visual clutter. This would still be a usability problem even if the dock fully followed Android design guidelines. It also affects voting: someone may like the redesign overall but still want the option to hide the dock. Merging these concerns into a broader “disable iOS design” request can therefore obscure what users actually object to. A simple solution would be an option to hide the bottom navigation bar.
The bottom dock permanently consumes valuable screen space for functions such as Contacts, Settings and Profile that most users access only occasionally. These are secondary functions and belong behind a menu or drawer, not in an always-visible navigation bar competing with the primary content: chats.
On a phone, vertical screen space is limited. Spending part of it on rarely used navigation makes the chat list shorter, adds constant visual clutter and provides very little practical benefit in return.
This is not simply a matter of preferring the old visual style. It is a usability regression: frequently used content has been given less space so that infrequently used functions can remain permanently “in your face”.
Please provide an option to disable the bottom navigation bar and use the previous menu-based navigation.
I understand merging true duplicates, but this is a distinct usability issue. The problem is not mainly that the new design resembles iOS or differs from Android conventions. The permanent dock itself wastes limited vertical screen space on relatively rarely used functions such as Contacts, Settings and Profile.
Chats are the primary content. Giving secondary functions permanent screen space reduces the visible chat area and adds constant visual clutter.
This would still be a usability problem even if the dock fully followed Android design guidelines.
It also affects voting: someone may like the redesign overall but still want the option to hide the dock. Merging these concerns into a broader “disable iOS design” request can therefore obscure what users actually object to.
A simple solution would be an option to hide the bottom navigation bar.