Gmail gets entirely new logo with 'Google Workspace' Gsuite rebrand

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Google has unveiled its new logo for Gmail, doing away with the colour and design that has become associated with the popular email service.

The change is part of a broader rebrand of the company’s suite of productivity apps, which also includes Calendar, Docs, Sheets and more.

Those tools were previously known together as Gsuite. But they will be rebranded as Google Workspace in a change that signals a broader movement to bring the apps together, the company said.

Google noted that the change comes as “work itself is transforming in unprecedented ways”, noting that for many people it is no longer a physical space and that productivity services like Suite are becoming a central part of that change.

Google said that the rebranding of Gmail and its other products came as users began to see the products as working together, rather than separately, and was chosen to indicate that they are all part of the “same family".

“10 years ago, when many of our products were first developed, they were created as individual apps that solved distinct challenges — like a better email with Gmail, or a new way for individuals to collaborate together with Docs,” wrote Javier Soltero, Vice President and general manager of Google Workspace. “Over time, our products have become more integrated, so much so that the lines between our apps have started to disappear.”

Gmail’s logo was previously a combination of the letter M and an envelope, mostly grey but with the red highlights that came to distinguish it.

The new one gets rid of both the colour and the envelope design, instead concentrating on the M.

Google showed off the new designs in a video posted to its YouTube channel, which detailed the Gmail redesign and how it sits alongside other app icons.

But even on that post, the change received some criticism.

“I'm sorry, Google, but changing all of your app's icons to use all of the same colors makes it harder to quickly identify them on my home screen," the top comment read. "It's easier to find colours quickly than it is to find shapes.”