Summary
- Google Maps and Google Photos will have new icons with gradients, abandoning solid lines.
- According to 9to5Google, the change is part of Google’s new visual identity, which marks the “Gemini era”, focused on AI.
- The gradient design may be adopted in other Google applications, coinciding with the introduction of new AI tools.
Google Maps and Google Photos should be the company’s next apps to receive new icons, abandoning the design of solid colors separated by lines. The new icons follow the aesthetic adopted by the company recently and use smooth gradients.
According to the leak, obtained by the website 9to5Googlethe visual change marks the company’s “AI era” and focus on integrating more Gemini features into applications.
What will change?
In the Google Photos icon, the familiar four-color pinwheel format remains, but the lines separating yellow, red, blue and green disappear. Instead, there is a gradient transition.
Google Maps, although it maintains the location “pin” format, has had its design changed. The icon appears wider and the bottom tip is noticeably rounder. Just like in Google Photos, the lines that divided the colors in the “pin” were replaced by gradients.
Focus on AI
The visual change follows a trend that Google started in May with the Google app and Google Home icons. At the end of September, the company confirmed that the gradient version will be its new visual identity.
In the main logo, the capital letter G now has a gradient look, mixing colors that were previously solid and separate.
According to the company itself in an official statement, the new design signals the infusion of more artificial intelligence resources into the company’s products and services — an argument identical to that adopted by Microsoft in the new Office Package icons, which feature smoother curves and color gradients, inspired by Copilot AI.
Likewise, Google has been publicly working to add more Gemini functions across its ecosystem, both in Google Photos (for editing and searching) and Google Maps (for route recommendations).
The expectation is that the official launch of the new icons to the general public coincides with the arrival of new AI tools in applications. Other Google apps should also adopt the gradient look in the future.
With information from Android Authority
Source: https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/estes-sao-os-novos-icones-do-google-maps-e-fotos/
