Still using the old Gmail design? Soon you will have to stop

Starting this month, users who have been sticking with New Gmail design Introduced earlier this year will be forced to switch.

The latest build was first introduced as an optional update in February and then canceled this summer. Now it’s just Gmail, stop.

The design didn’t change much in how Gmail works; I’ve mostly changed the color scheme – the Gmail brand’s red design has disappeared in favor of a more neutral and blue look by default in line with the company’s “Material You” design principles. You can modify the coloring yourself anyway.

The most notable change to the new design is the addition of a second sidebar in the far left of the screen next to the regular Gmail sidebar; It includes things like inbox and labels. An additional sidebar was Google’s efforts to push Chat, Spaces, and Meet — products the company created to compete with Slack and Zoom in the virtual office world. By default, the bar included links to Gmail, Chat, Spaces, Meet… and lots of unused white space.

Google said this sidebar was introduced to make it easier to move between these apps without having to bounce between browser tabs, but it was a promotional move like anything else since these services aren’t as popular as competitors like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams with some companies.

All that said, you can remove the new sidebar entirely—which wasn’t the case when it was first introduced earlier this year.

In July, Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica wrote about How do you get rid of this sidebar:

This new No Sidebar option isn’t very straightforward, but you can end the Gmail sidebar by turning off Google Chat and Google Meet. Simply head over to the settings gear, then the “Customize” link under “Chat & Meet”. Uncheck both check boxes and the sidebar will disappear, allowing you to take back a lot of screen real estate.

Doing so will make the regular Gmail sidebar behave the same as in the previous design as well. Whether you stick to the sidebar or not, though, you can no longer configure chat on the right side of Gmail.

Amadeo too explained How you can tweak the background color to bring it a little closer to what you knew before:

Gmail still has a theme system, so you can change the color to whatever you want. Click the settings gear at the top right, then under the Theme section, click View all. The background closest to the old Gmail is the solid “soft grey” background option. To really match your old Gmail background, you might want “white,” but that’s not an option.

You won’t get quite an exact replica of the old look, but it’s pretty close. Of course, if you’re not too interested in the new design, you can just work with it – probably more convenient if your organization makes heavy use of Chat or Meet.

List image by Samuel Axon