Google’s New Gradient Icons Roll Out to More Apps in 2025, Featuring AI-Driven Design Updates

In late 2025, Google began rolling out new icons featuring a gradient design, marking a shift from the uniform circle style that previously attempted to incorporate all four colors of the Google logo. This design update has now extended beyond initial implementations to encompass more of the company’s applications.

The new iconography presents a softer visual language, with rounded corners and gradients that transition gently from near-pastel tones to the more saturated primary colors associated with Google’s branding. This approach has already been applied to the Google G logo, Gemini, Google Photos, and Google Maps, where the redesign reflects the integration of AI-powered features across these products.

According to reporting by 9to5Google, which obtained images of the updated icons, the gradient design symbolizes the surge of AI-driven innovation and creative energy across Google’s products and technology while maintaining fidelity to the company’s iconic four-color palette. The Verge reported that this design language is now appearing in additional apps such as Google Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and Keep, many of which have moved away from portrait-oriented layouts toward landscape formats better suited to typical user workflows.

Notable changes include the Chat app icon, which replaced the traditional four-color speech bubble outline with a green blob featuring a smile inside — a design reminiscent of the classic Google Hangouts icon. In contrast, the Keep app icon has received mixed reactions, with some observers describing it unfavorably. The Google Photos and Maps icons were among the first to receive the gradient treatment, with Maps featuring a modernized pin shape and a larger inner circle that removes previous diagonal partitions, and Photos showcasing a gradient effect that radiates from the center outward.

Google first introduced the brighter, four-color gradient “G” icon for its Search app earlier in 2025, later expanding it to represent the entire Google brand and company. The company stated that this updated icon visually reflects its evolution in the AI era and confirmed plans to continue rolling out the gradient design across additional products, platforms, and services in the coming months.

The rollout of these redesigned icons aligns with broader industry trends moving away from the flat, minimalist aesthetics prevalent in the late 2010s and early 2020s toward more vibrant, varied, and playful visual identities. As Google continues to integrate AI capabilities into its ecosystem, the gradient iconography serves as a consistent visual indicator of these advancements across its user-facing applications.