Gmail has made a number of small changes to the icons on the desktop client. As reported by Android Police, the subtle tweaks now match those on the app to create greater continuity.
Google has made a number of small but important changes over recent months. Many of these have been around the pandemic and improving video conference features but also giving users great choice when using the apps.
At the start of the year, Gmail changed the look of Chat, Rooms and Meet on desktop. This allowed users to begin resizing the respective fields of these apps in the web sidebar on Gmail.
Prior to this Google also gave its users the opportunity to disable smart features. This applied across Gmail, Meet and Chat and gave users more control of their data.
The changes only affect the icons in a limited number of spots. Generally speaking, it replaces old filled-in icons with higher-contrast outlines. Just a small change but brings great continuity between the desktop client and the app.
Gmail make small changes to desktop icons
As the above screenshot shows the changes affect icons for things like the sidebar folder navigation and the actions listed at the top of emails. It does not affect the overall look of the page or the icons honestly but gives that greater continuity.
As mentioned the change matches the icons that have been in place for Gmail’s Android app for a while now. However, it also goes further to match up with changes made to other Google Apps in recent months and years.
The change is yet to reach everyone yet and has only been seen by a select few. It is as yet unclear as to whether this is just a quirk of the rollout or part of a limited test to gauge users thoughts.
It seems a strange change to roll out as part of a test. However, due to the number of people that use Gmail, it is unsurprising that Google would be tentative about the way it makes changes to the app as to not upset any users. Perhaps Google is guarding against any potential user backlash.
Presuming there are no major issues or complaints with the changes we should expect this to roll out more fully over the coming weeks. Given it is a relatively simple change this should happen fairly quickly once Google gives it the full go-ahead.