Gmail’s app is about to look totally different

Gmail will soon be the latest major app to look really, really white. 

Google is is redesigning the Gmail mobile app to bring its look more in line with the desktop version. The updated look, which will be rolling out to iOS and Android “in the coming weeks,” ditches the app’s red color scheme for a more minimalist white backdrop.

If you’ve been using last year’s Gmail redesign on desktop, then the new mobile app will probably look familiar. Instead of the prominent red bars, the app has a clean, white design that looks less cluttered. And the compose button i snow a simple plus sign instead of a red circle.

The changes are mostly visual tweaks — Google previously added a ton of new features when it rolled out its big Gmail update last year — but there are a few important changes coming to the new app. For one, the location of the account switcher, which lets you navigate between multiple accounts, is moving to a new place in the app. Instead of switching from the menu on the left side of the app, you’ll change by tapping on your avatar from the app’s search bar.

The other big change has to do with how Gmail now handles attachments. You’ll no longer need to open a message in order to view its attachments, much like you can on the desktop version of Gmail.

As for why Google is making such a big change to the look and feel of one of its biggest apps, the company notes the overhaul is a long time coming, and is meant to bring the Gmail app up to date with the rest of its services. Last year at I/O, Google showed off Material Theme, the design philosophy meant to be a successor to Material Design, which it introduced in 2014. 

“This update is part of a larger effort to make G Suite look and act like a family of products, designed in the Google Material Theme with ease-of-use in mind,” the company wrote in a blog post.