Gmail app redesign is mostly white space (Update: Rolling out now)

Update, February 20, 2019 (10:05 AM ET): It looks like the Material Theme redesign for the Android Gmail app is rolling out now. While we here at Android Authority haven’t seen it yet, we’ve received a tip from a reader that they have. We’ve also seen other publications mention that they are seeing the redesign, such as The Verge and The Leaker. It’s likely this new redesign is going out as a usual Google slow rollout, so you’ll see it at some point soon.

Unfortunately, the mostly white space redesign does not yet include a dark mode, which would be a very welcome feature to counteract all this brightness.

If you can’t wait to be blinded by the white, you can always go to APKMirror and sideload the update to version 9.1.13.

Original Article, January 29, 2019 (01:54 PM ET): Slowly but surely, Google has been pushing its new Material Theme to its various services. After rolling out a major overhaul to Gmail on the web back in September, Google has announced that the redesign is coming to the Gmail mobile apps.

If you’ve used the web client, this refresh won’t come as much of a surprise. As you can see from the screenshots, Gmail will be removing most of the app’s accent colors and sticking with a flat white design. The various smart groups and alerts will retain Google’s bright colors to help users distinguish between different areas of the app.

With Android Q’s rumored push for a system-wide dark mode, fingers crossed that Gmail soon offers a way to tone down the bright design.

Google notes that the redesign will introduce an easier way to switch between email accounts and will offer a default, comfortable, and compact style for viewing emails similar to what’s available on the web. This focus on ease of use and customization is likely to help Inbox users transition back to Gmail as that service comes to an end.

Gmail apps on Android and iOS will receive this redesign in the next couple of weeks. Google plans to roll out a similar Material Theme to the rest of the G Suite mobile apps throughout the year.