Earlier this year, 9to5Google spotted the first signs of a Google Maps makeover. Oddly enough, this partial rollout seemed to be undone a few weeks later, as Google eventually decided that the old UI was better.

But it appears that it was simply a postponement of the rollout. In a new post, 9to5Google explains how the new UI is back.

As with the original update, the goal appears to be to do away with the full-screen overlay.

The corners of the overlay layer are now more rounded and can be erased by simply tapping the "close" button next to the "share" icon in the upper right corner.

The biggest change comes when people are actually trying to enter directions, which is probably the main time people use the app. As you can see in the screenshot comparison below, the island for starting point and destination is now floating, and the driving, transit, walking, ride hailing, and cycling options have moved to the island below.

Overall, this appears to be a fairly modest upgrade from the previous pull-down makeover. In fact, the biggest noticeable difference is that the context sheet is no longer double-backed:

It is undeniably a minor change, but it makes things look a bit cleaner and lets you see the map a bit more.

As of this writing, the server-side update (version 11.127.x on Android) has not yet been widely rolled out.

Nevertheless, it is clear that this is an update that Google has been experimenting with for at least three months, and it seems likely that it will be rolled out to all users in some form soon.