Google's much-improved app icons are rolling out now
Key takeaways
- The old icons had very little to visually differentiate them.
- Nathan Ingraham for Engadget About five years ago, Google redesigned the icons for most of its apps and services, including widely-used tools like Drive, Meet, Calendar and so on.
- In a win for legibility, Google is changing course.
The old icons had very little to visually differentiate them.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget About five years ago, Google redesigned the icons for most of its apps and services, including widely-used tools like Drive, Meet, Calendar and so on. The internet's response was not positive, and with good reason. Many correctly pointed out that Google removed the individual defining characteristics of its icons, replacing them with an outline made up of the company's signature four colors. If you look closely, you'll recognize the outline of a document for Google Docs, or a camera for Meet. But at a glance, the new icons were much harder to differentiate than the ones they replaced.
In a win for legibility, Google is changing course. It started with a more distinctive icon for Google Maps a few months ago, one that has more depth while still incorporating Google's colors and the ubiquitous pin design. Then, a few weeks ago, 9to5Google revealed that a full-scale redesign was on its way. Now, with Google I/O just one day away, those redesigned icons are rolling out.