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The new Gmail. It’s blue and has a big sidebar, but there are options for those two big changes.
Google
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To turn off the blue scheme, choose one of the theme options here.
The new desktop Gmail design began rolling out this weekend. If you use the default theme, you’ll know it arrived when your entire Gmail interface turned blue. Gmail’s new design first went into a preview in February, and after gathering feedback and fixing a few things, Google is pushing the design on everyone. Not everyone likes Gmail changes, so let’s talk about what’s different and how to return them.
Some things have changed from now until the February preview. The most striking change is the blue scheme. The Google blog post says, “You’ll notice that the new navigation now includes Material You, our updated and fresh look for your Google apps.” “Material You” was released with Android 12 as a color-coordinated theme system that combined the color scheme of your operating system with your wallpaper. However, there are no color matches with Gmail’s “Material You”, just the blue color scheme.
Gmail still has a theme system, so you can change the color to whatever you want. Click the setup gear at the top right, then in the “theme” section, click “Show All.” The background closest to old Gmail is the “soft gray” solid background option. To really match the old Gmail background, you’d like “white,” but that’s not an option. (You can also choose from your Google Photos collection via a “my photos” link at the bottom, and I tried to hang a solid white background, but trying to apply it only brings up an error message). This “theme” screen is also where you can apply Gmail’s strangely hidden dark mode – just choose the black background option and everything will switch to light text on a dark background.
The other change you might want to make is to resolve our biggest complaint with the new Gmail – this new giant sidebar. Google has long had the strategy of introducing any new product it wants to promote in Gmail, and the new Gmail design includes a large, full-height sidebar that only includes four icons: one for Gmail, two for Google Chat (Google’s latest messaging app). ), and one for Google Meet (Google’s version of Zoom Meetings). Gmail already has a sidebar, but this new design adds a second sidebar, which looks like a big banner ad for other Google communication apps. Fortunately, between the February preview and this default release, it looks like Google heard the comments and added the option to turn off the sidebar.
Announcements
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It’s not obvious, but you can turn off the second sidebar by clicking on the gear and then “customizing” Google Chat and Meet.
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This box will then appear. Disable Google Chat and Google Meet.
Ron Amadeu
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Now, Gmail will look like this. No more second sidebar!
Google
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Removing the second sidebar causes the Gmail sidebar to shrink as before, with visible sections of Gmail.
Ron Amadeu
This new “no sidebar” option isn’t very obvious, but you can remove the Gmail sidebar by disabling Google Chat and Google Meet. Just go to the setup gear and then to the “Customize” link under “Chat and meet.” Uncheck the two checkboxes and the sidebar will disappear, allowing you to retrieve a large amount of real estate from the screen. It’s weird that New Gmail works this way when Old Gmail puts Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Meet controls in a single adjustable sidebar, but that’s what Google decided to do.
Disabling the layout of two sidebars not only makes the new Gmail much more like the old Gmail, but also makes the normal Gmail sidebar work as before. With two sidebars, clicking the burger button to shrink the sidebar only shows the app switch and not any of the Gmail controls; you’ll see links to Google Chat and Google Meet instead of “Inbox,” “Stars,” “Spam.” “, etc. When you turn off Google Chat and Meet, however, if you fold the Gmail sidebar, show the Gmail controls inside Gmail again. Huzzah.
If you don’t really like the new Gmail, you can still, at least for a while, turn off the new design. Click on the setup gear and you should still see the “Back to original view” option. However, this won’t last forever, and you’ll eventually need to get used to the new Gmail. The original version was crude, but it looks like Google heard the complaints about the second sidebar. If you check the appropriate settings, you’ll see that there isn’t much difference between newer and older versions of Gmail.
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