We’ve been tracking the progress of Google’s interface update for Gmail since February, and as promised, the company says it’s now available to all Gmail users. The rework brings Meet, Chat and Spaces closer together as part of the overall experience and includes elements of Google’s Material Design 3.
It doesn’t stop there, saying that by the end of the year, we should see improvements to Gmail for tablet users, better emoji support, and more accessibility features, among other updates.
The new Gmail UI puts buttons for Gmail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet in a single lane. Image: Google
If you use Gmail for work, it may already be implemented in your account. For those who just can’t stand the change, you can turn it off and go back to the old look, at least for now. If you don’t have chat turned on, you’ll still get the new look, but by default in a Gmail-only view, and if you don’t use some of these apps, you can disable or enable them from the Quick Settings Menu.
If you want to go back, Google’s instructions are pretty easy to follow:
- At the top right, click Settings.
- Under Quick Settings, click Go back to original Gmail view.
- In the new window, click Reload.
New Gmail user interface details. Image: Google
The updated UI moves the Mail, Meet, Spaces, and Chat buttons in a list at the top of the left lane instead of showing multiple conversations from each 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 section, as a list will appear when you hover over its icon.
The changes are part of Google’s new global approach to the Workspace suite (including Docs, Sheets, etc.) that’s supposed to provide a more unified style and new AI-powered features like Gmail search improvements that just announced