latest
Android 13 DP1 opens up dynamic icon theming to third-party apps
Just be ready for a big mix of themed and un-themed icons
Google has confirmed that Material You is set to grow beyond the bounds of the Pixel family, but that doesn’t mean it’s done evolving and growing in new ways. An experiment in Android 12 Beta 3 expands the reach of the dynamic theming system to home screen icons, but only for Google's own apps. Now with Android 13, third-party apps are free to create their own theming-friendly icons so you can have the two-tone icon packs you’ve always wanted without installing a custom launcher.
YouTube's line art icons make the jump to your TV, complete with a new resolution button
Almost a year after they first came to Android
I don't know about our readers, but I spend a surprising amount of time watching YouTube on my television and not on my phone. With video length often pushing well past 30 minutes, throwing it up on the big screen like a TV show just feels right. It's taken a while, but that all-new line art look we've seen come to Android, the web, and even YouTube Music is finally coming to the TV interface — along with a better resolution indicator.
Google extends Material You's dynamic app icon themes to more of its apps in Android 12 Beta 3
Third-party apps next, please?
Read update
Android 12 Beta 2 first introduced monochrome icons for Google apps based on your wallpaper's colors, much like other interface elements as part of Material You or Monet. Beta 3 expands on these capabilities. It's the first release of Android 12 that introduces a user-facing toggle to turn on or off these themed icons in the Wallpaper & style app, and while it's at it, it's adding a ton more Google apps to the list of supported icons.
Last year, YouTube shed its lifeless, gray in-app icons for more visually distinct line-art ones. It seems like sister app YouTube Music might not be too far from getting the same treatment — the new icons are already being tested.
Google really likes icons that are just outlines. After the multicolored makeover for all of Google's service app icons, it redid the YouTube interface, replacing the standard look with line art. Now that shift has made its way to the desktop/web version of YouTube. So yeah, that's a thing.
Chrome OS 89 is rolling out with Phone Hub, native screen recording, and more
Google announces a slew of Chromebook features and improvements
Read update
It's Chrome OS's 10th birthday today, and Google announced a slew of cool new Chrome OS 89 features to celebrate. The milestone update improves Chromebooks with several changes to enhance the user experience. Here are a handful of Chrome OS features Google announced today that are coming to eligible devices.
Gmail for desktop testing subtly tweaked icons that match the app
The outlinification of all Google icons continues
Gmail for desktop is testing a subtle tweak to its icons in a handful of spots, replacing the old filled-in icons with higher-contrast outlines. It's a minor tweak, and it's not live for everyone yet, but it finally brings the desktop web version of Gmail the icons that the Android app's been using for years.
New icons let you see which apps are rising up and falling off the Play Store charts
Up two spots to third this week is FINNEAS
All ranks are fungible on a leaderboard and Google is making that axiom painfully apparent to developers, publishers and prospective users alike with a new rank change icon in its top app lists on the Play Store.
Instagram revamps its bottom bar, putting Reels and Shop front and center
It also tweaked icons and layouts while it was at it
After successfully cloning Snapchat's Stories, Instagram is pushing hard to break into the next market. Not too long ago, it introduced its TikTok copy Reels, which is currently rolling out to users worldwide. To put the new format front and center, Instagram has formally announced that it will now get a fixed place in the bottom bar along with a new Shop section.
Read update
YouTube is arguably the world's largest visual platform, and from redesigning the playback UI on Android TV to adding a new button in the bottom navigation bar, the YouTube team is continually looking for ways to improve the interface. The icons used in the Android app haven't seen major changes since the 2017 material refresh, but now it looks like a significant revamp is rolling out to everyone — and it's not necessarily a change for the better.
Google 'updates' Docs, Sheets, and Slides app icons by placing them on big white plates
When Google announced G Suite successor Workspace, it also took the opportunity to update the icons of its productivity apps.
When Google announced G Suite successor Workspace, it also took the opportunity to update the icons of its productivity apps, both for consumers and businesses. The new designs are slowly rolling out and have already reached Gmail, Drive, Meet, and Chat on many people's phones and computers. The latest design updates to hit Android phones are the Docs, Sheets, and Slides icons, and boy, they're a regression.
Google's new icons for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet all look the same
Thanks for making them so easily distinguishable, Googz
As part of its announcement of G Suite's rebranding to Google Workspace, Google introduced a new visual identity and five redesigned icons for some of its popular services: Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet. The icons, as you can see them above, are similar to what we've come to expect from Google — and perhaps a little too similar at that.
G Suite is now Google Workspace, with a whole new visual identity
Includes the new Gmail experience and additional collaboration features
Read update
Ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck, the definition of work has changed, and companies like Google, Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft had to move quickly to adapt to a much bigger work-from-home force. Google has already introduced tons of features to make remote work easier (shamelessly advertising as much in Gmail), but now it has also decided that it's time for a rebranding. It's paid business work tool collection G Suite is now Google Workspace, and it packs a slew of new icons and even more remote collaboration features.
Play Store tweaks category icons with new mint green and blue colors
The 'top categories' carousel is also gone in this latest test
Google is rolling out a handful of minor visual tweaks to the Play Store in a recently spotted test. The change rearranges the Categories section to remove the "top categories" carousel at the top, increases the whitespace between listed categories, and updates the icons themselves. These changes also apply to other parts of the Play Store that include categories, like the Family tab.
Android Auto just got new Material icons in Google Maps navigation
It's never too late for a little more consistency
Google typically rolls out changes to its design language every couple years, but many of the company's apps still take months, if not years to catch up. The wireframe style icons that started popping up in 2018 have become fairly ubiquitous, but there are still a few notable holdouts. Android Auto would have been counted among them, but it looks like a new set of icons has been silently swapped in for the Google Maps navigation interface.
Google has been tweaking its popular apps over the past few months to align them with the refreshed Material guidelines. After showing signs of a refresh not too long ago, Google’s dialer and messaging apps are now picking up the new outlined icons with their latest beta releases. These rather subtle changes merely replace the existing filled iconography and do not introduce any new functionality whatsoever.
Over the last couple days, some tweaks to the Messages app on Android have been spotted in testing, updating the iconography and style in the message composition area to more closely match Android Q's outlined aesthetic. Also of note, Messages now supports transparency behind the new gesture bar in Android Q, though we can't be sure when this change happened.
Based on a handful of recent reports, Google appears to be testing some Material tweaks to Gboard's settings pane. Changes include new outline-style icons and the usual blinding white background.
As time has passed, we've seen Google slowly become more serious about a cohesive design language when it comes to Android, Chrome OS, and the Play Store. Taking one more step along that road, the company put out new app icon guidelines for app developers. This is meant to ensure uniformity in the Play Store and it will hopefully make it easier for you the user to have adaptive icons in your app drawer.