Back at the beginning of October, Google revamped its Workspace and completely changed the icons for Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive, and other tools on the Workspace.
In fact, prior to that, Google has been continuously changing the icons of some of its beloved apps. And if you see the public reaction, it is largely coming out as mixed.
The reason being many people are accustomed to the old icons and giving them a glance makes them understood which app it is. But with the new logos and icons, it is kinda hard.
Moreover, some people don’t care while others absolutely straightaway hate the new icons. Seeing the majority falls in the latter category, the good news is that you can now change the Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive icons on Android, iPhone, and Chrome.
Frankly, the older icons were arguably better icons. But Google went ahead with the changes to highlight the company’s signature colors, i.e. red, blue, green, and yellow. However, the redesign did not go down well with the users.
Here in this post, thanks to 9To5Google, we will share with you how you can change the icons of Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive Icons On Android, iPhone, and Chrome. Let us take a look at them, one by one;
Android
Android is an easy platform to use. And if you are on Android, then you can change the Gmail icon to its old better version. Here, you have to thanks third-party launchers.
Third-party launchers allow the users to apply icon packs. But these icon packs usually change the icons of all the apps present on the smartphone.
We will here focus on replacing the icons for Gmail, Meet, and Calendar specifically, though the process that works for any app. First of all, you need to download Nova Launcher from Play Store.
Set up your homescreen as you like. Once that is done, long-press the icon of any Google Workspace app you want to change the icon of. For instance, Gmail, long-press the Gmail icon, and you should see a menu popping up.
On the new menu, click on the Edit button, tap on the Gmail icon to replace it with icon packs installed on your phone. Similarly, for all other apps, you can follow the same process to revert back to their old icons.
iOS
Unlike Android, iOS is not known for its flexibility around third-party apps. But things changed with the arrival of the latest iOS 14. It allows for new customization options for homescreen, which was lacking on iOS for so many years.
Simply, open the Siri Shortcuts app, Create a new shortcut with the Scripting action. This action requires to Open App and select any Google app like Gmail or Calendar of which you want to change the icon.
Pick any app and hit the Next button. Give it a shortcut name and hit Done. Now, open the newly created shortcut from within the app and tap on the Share button.
From the share menu, tap on Add to Home Screen. Click on the blank space on the Google app name and tap on Choose Photo. Then you need to download the Google app icon from here and use it as shortcut’s homescreen icon.
Chrome
Chrome or Edge browsers allow for changing the Google Workspace icons with a single click. Thanks to an extension named “Restore old Google icons.”
The extension does what it been named for. it simply swaps all the Google new icons with the old ones that Google has been using for years. For Firefox users, the extension is coming soon.