Ron Amadeo
Gmail’s latest redesign finally seems to have hit a large number of accounts this weekend. The new desktop site changes the 2018 design by graying out the top and side portions of the web app, changing the red highlight to blue, and rounding out some corners. Oh yes, it also adds a large, second sidebar on the left side of the screen. The normal Gmail sidebar with all your email sections is still there, but now there’s a whole extra sidebar that’s basically an app switcher for other Google apps. It’s weird.
The new colors are fine, but Gmail is themed anyway, so the new default design doesn’t really matter. But the new “integrated view” and sidebar are likely to cause controversy. You’re on Gmail.com to check your email and now on the side of the screen there are four new buttons. There’s “Mail,” which is just Gmail. Then ‘Chat’ and ‘Spaces’, both for Google’s newest messaging service, Google Chat. Then there’s a button for Google Meet, Google’s Zoom competitor.
It actually is. A vertical bar from top to bottom to display four measly buttons (five if you count the returning hamburger button) and then a desolate Siberian wilderness of whitespace. Oh, if you happen to receive an incoming Google Chat, you’ll see a profile picture pop up in the abyss at the bottom of the new sidebar. This is a huge waste of space for buttons that are irrelevant when you visit Gmail to – you know –use Gmail†
Even if you hit the hamburger button, new Gmail still shows the app bar. The old design, even if collapsed, would still display an icon for each Gmail section.
Ron Amadeo
It’s critical that you can’t collapse the new sidebar, even if you plan to never use Google Chat and Meet while trying to check your email. The hamburger button in the top left corner appears to collapse the new sidebar, but instead it collapses the Gmail sections, not the app switcher. You can never make the app bar disappear in the new Gmail design. Historically, you could go into Gmail settings and disable Google Chat and Meet separately, but flipping the switch to either of those services will take you out of the new Gmail design and into Gmail Classic. That will become a problem in the future when the “classic” design disappears.
The lack of control really makes this app switcher a terrible addition to Gmail. The new sidebar is big, it’s annoying, it takes up screen real estate to promote unrelated products, and I can’t get rid of it. It’s basically a banner ad for Google Chat and Meet.
Even if you use Google Chat and Google Meet, the new Gmail buttons aren’t particularly good. Google Chat made the inexplicable decision to separate 1-on-1 chats from group chats (or “Spaces” in Google Chat parlance). Like the mobile app, the new Gmail makes the crucial mistake of not displaying both sections on the same screen. Half of your chats are in the ‘Chat’ section, group chats are in the ‘Spaces’ section and you have to click to switch between the chats. The old Gmail and chat.google.com websites show all your chats in a stacked sidebar, with group and 1-on-1 chats still split into separate sections, but with a single screen. The website or old Gmail is a much nicer interface for this reason.
Ron Amadeo
We’ve already encountered bugs with Gmail’s new interface. 9to5Google’s Abner Li isn’t getting the new gray color scheme loaded properly on his business account, so his Gmail is displayed incorrectly with an all-white background. For me, the “Meet” tab does nothing. Nothing happens when I click on it. Even if you could open it, apparently there is few watch. Meet’s only real features are Join a Meeting and Start a Meeting, and even the dedicated meet.google.com website has almost no interface. All of these sidebar buttons open up massive full-screen interfaces, and what Google Meet plans to do with all that space is unclear.
Chat and video features have been part of Gmail for a thousand years, starting with Google Talk in 2006 and Google’s first video chat in 2008. On the “classic” Gmail design available today, Google Chat and Meet are already integrated with Gmail, and they’re available in a way that seems like an entirely better design than this new rollout. In classic view, there is one sidebar with ‘Mail’, ‘Chat’, ‘Spaces’ and ‘Meet’ stacked on top of each other. Each section is collapsible and you can dig into the settings and permanently disable any section you don’t want. Sections like Google Meet, which has only two small buttons to offer, only has a small sidebar section, which seems like a much more appropriate amount of space.
