Google
A few things have changed between now and the February preview. The most striking change is the blue color scheme. Google’s blog post says, “You’ll notice that the new navigation now includes Material You, the updated, fresh look and feel for your Google apps.” Material You launched with Android 12 as a color-coordinated theme system that matched your operating system’s color scheme with your wallpaper. However, there is no color match with Gmail’s “Material You”, just the blue color scheme. Gmail even has a theme system so you can change the color to whatever you want. Click the settings gear in the top right, then under the theme section, click see all. The background closest to the old Gmail is the fixed “light gray” background option. To really match the old Gmail background, you’d want “white”, but that’s not an option. (You can also choose from your Google Photos gallery via a “my photos” link at the bottom, and I’ve tried uploading a solid white background, but trying to apply it just gives me an error message). This “theme” screen is also where you can apply Gmail’s weirdly hidden dark mode: Just select the black background option and everything will change to light text on a dark background. The other change you might want to make is to fix our biggest complaint with the new Gmail: that new, giant sidebar. Google has long had a strategy of introducing whatever new products it wants to promote into Gmail, and Gmail’s new design comes with a large, full-height sidebar that features just four icons: one for Gmail, two for Google Chat (the Google’s latest messaging app ), and one for Google Meet (Google’s version of Zoom meetings). Gmail already has a sidebar, but this new design adds a second sidebar that looks like a big advertising banner for Google’s other communication apps. Fortunately, between the February preview and this default rollout, Google apparently listened to feedback and added the option to disable the sidebar. Advertising
It’s not obvious, but you can disable the second sidebar by clicking the gear and then “customizing” Google Chat and Meet. Then this box will appear. Turn off Google Chat and Google Meet. Rum Amadeo Now, Gmail will look like this. No more second sidebar! Google Removing the second sidebar makes the Gmail sidebar collapse like before, with Gmail sections visible. Rum Amadeo
This new “no sidebar” option isn’t very obvious, but you can kill the Gmail sidebar by turning off Google Chat and Google Meet. Just head to the settings gear and then the Customize link under Chat & Meeting. Uncheck both checkboxes and the sidebar will disappear, allowing you to reclaim a lot of screen real estate. It’s strange that New Gmail works this way when Old Gmail puts Gmail controls, Google Chat, and Google Meet all in a single, customizable sidebar, but that’s what Google chose to do.
Rum Amadeo
Google
Rum Amadeo
Disabling the two sidebar layout not only makes the new Gmail look a lot more like the old Gmail, but it also makes the regular Gmail sidebar work like it used to. With the two-sidebar layout, clicking the hamburger button to collapse the sidebar only shows the app switcher and not any of the Gmail controls—you see links to Google Chat and Google Meet instead of Inbox; “Stars,” “Spam,” etc. However, when you turn off Google Chat and Meet, collapsing the Gmail sidebar re-displays the Gmail controls inside Gmail. Huzzah.
If you really don’t like the new Gmail, you can still, at least for a while, opt out of the new design. Click the settings gear and you’ll still see the “Return to Home View” option. However, this won’t last forever, and you’ll eventually have to get used to the new Gmail. The initial version was rough, but Google seems to have heard the complaints about the second sidebar. If you select the right settings boxes, you will see that there is no longer much difference between the newer and older version of Gmail.
Listing image from Google
