I woke up yesterday morning and when I looked at my phone, I felt like I was still dreaming. Where is my Google Calendar, I asked myself in my mind. Then I realized that the redesign of the Workspace icons had already reached me. And even though I knew about it in advance, it surprised me and disappointed me a little. Google has thrown away its iconic colors and corporate identity in an effort to be modern and original. But the result will be the opposite for many users.
Google offers more than 15 apps that come pre-installed on most Android phones. Until now, most of them had a typical color scheme consisting of blue, yellow, green and red, i.e. corporate colors GoogleThe technology giant made sure to maintain the color scheme with each previous redesign, because it made it clear at first glance that these were its own applications, not competing ones.
But the current design change is completely different. You could even say it's revolutionary. While some icons (such as Maps and Photos) retain their color and just blend in shades, most Google Workspace icons lose their colorfulness. They turn into simple, boring, and monochromatic images. While they don't lack gradient transitions providing a modern look, but it's simply not Google anymore. And for me personally, the pure blue Calendar is now easily confused with any competing app.
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Google's explanation is lacking.
Google showed off the redesign at its two-day conference I / O 2026, but the company management didn't talk much about it. We only learned that the offere "a more elegant look that matches a new era of utility"However, the fact is that the usefulness does not change in any way, nor are any new features added. It is purely a change in the appearance of the icons.
Now, representatives of the Mountain View tech giant have presented the redesign in a little more detail: “These changes bring greater consistency and cohesion across our product portfolio, while ensuring that each individual app remains modern and easily recognizable on your screen.”
However, this marketing proclamation is a bit lacking in my opinion. Easily recognizable applications are a thing of the past. The blue Calendar sheet is interchangeable and the colors are very oddly distributed. While the application Phone will be green instead of blue, Meet turns into a yellow television camera, Chat will be green and Disk will lose the red corner. The four-color combination that made the icons literally iconic will be gone for most of them. But it will reportedly be a change for the better and a sign of a transition to an era Gemini (however, its icon is typically four-color, modeled after the Google logo).
Out with the old, in with the bold ✨
We gave the Google Workspace icons a sleeker look to meet this new era of helpfulness. Check them out! https://t.co/NHtXdghQys pic.twitter.com/oE3RVs9h7f
— Google Workspace (@GoogleWorkspace) May 19, 2026
Within a few weeks The display for Gmail, Calendar, will change on all devices. Chat, Meet, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Vids, Keep, Forms, Voice, Sites, and Tasks. The result will be temporary chaos, with users not knowing which icon is which and where their apps have disappeared to. But over time, we will all get used to it, and in a few months, we will not even know that the icons looked different before. Google He is obviously happy with this and has no plans to return to the old logos.
