Gmail for Android rolls out tweaked colors for automatic labels, including updates, promotions

Google has very quietly rolled out a minor update to its Gmail app on Android that tweaks some of the colors within.

Showing up in what appears to be a wide server-side rollout, the colors of the “Smart Labels” have all slightly changed. We’re seeing the change in Gmail v2021.07.11, but it doesn’t appear to be dependant on a Play Store update. The change is present, at least for us, on multiple accounts and devices, and it seems to have been rolled over over the past 2-3 days.

What exactly has changed? As pictured below, the colors of these labels have all been tweaked to be considerably darker and more vibrant. The change is visible both in light and dark modes. The “Updates” label is the most obvious, with a saturated orange color in place of the near-yellow that was used before. It’s visually much closer to what’s seen on Gmail’s desktop app but still not the exact same shade.

The “Promotions” and “Social” labels have also been pushed towards darker, more vibrant hues of their respective green and blue colors in Gmail. We don’t have a point of comparison for “Forums,” but one reader told us its purple color also appears to have the same slight tweak. Notably, we’re not seeing this change on iOS, only Android.

Before

After

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More on Gmail:

• Gmail for Android gains delightful swipe action animations
• New Gmail adding support for editing Google Slides with side-by-side Chat
• Gmail will show company logos in messages to verify legitimate senders

Thanks, Henry!