We’ve been tracking the progress of Google’s interface refresh for Gmail since February, and as promised, the company says it’s now becoming available for all Gmail users. The rework pulls Meet, Chat, and Spaces closer together as part of the overall experience and includes elements from Google’s Material Design 3.
It’s not stopping there and says that, later this year, we should see improvements to Gmail for tablet users, better emoji support, and more accessibility features, among other upgrades.
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If you use Gmail for work, it may have already rolled out to your account. For those who just can’t stand the change, you can opt out and switch back to the old look, at least for now. If you don’t have Chat enabled, you’ll still get the new look, but in a Gmail-only view by default, and if you don’t use some or any of those apps, you can disable or enable them from the Quick Settings menu.
If you want to switch back, Google’s instructions are pretty easy to follow:
- At the top right, click Settings.
- Under Quick Settings, click Go back to the original Gmail view.
- In the new window, click Reload.
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The updated UI moves Mail, Meet, Spaces, and Chat buttons into one list at the top of the left rail instead of showing several conversations from each one in a list. They’re still easily accessible without having everything on the screen at once, and you can quickly jump into a conversation in any one section, as a list will pop out when you hover over its icon.
The changes are a part of Google’s overall new approach to the Workspace suite (including Docs, Sheets, etc.) that’s supposed to provide a more unified style and new AI-powered features like the Gmail search improvements that were just announced.
