The new Gmail Material You widget is finally here

Google announced some new Material You widgets for Gmail, YouTube Music, and Google Drive. Now Gmail is joining the update

Nov 17, 2021 - 17:51
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The new Gmail Material You widget is finally here

When Google unveiled the Pixel 6 series last month, it announced some new Material You widgets for Gmail, YouTube Music, and Google Drive. Google Drive received a redesigned Material You "Suggested Files" widget earlier this month, and now Gmail is joining.

When Gmail itself received a redesign in September, Google only supplemented the existing widget with support for dynamic color. But, as 9to5Google reports, the new Gmail widget seen last month is now finally coming.

It looks quite similar to the Google Keep widget, and as you can see in the screenshots attached below, it has a rounded square FAB in the upper right corner with an unread counter appearing next to it. Emails appear as rounded tabs, and there is an archive button on the right. When you increase the width, the widget also displays a bottom bar that displays quick shortcuts for chat, spaces, and Meet. As expected, the widget fully supports the dynamic theme of Android 12 and takes over the dominant color of your current background.

You can also see, the new Material You widget is much more powerful and useful than the old one, which only displayed an email entry list and had a FAB in the bottom corner.

As mentioned earlier, the Google Drive app has also got a new widget that gives you quick access to suggested files and searches. It has a search bar, an upload button that opens the system file selector, and a FAB in the lower right corner.

A new home screen widget appears with Gmail version 2021.10.31.x. To try it out, update your Gmail app from the Google Play Store. If the update is not available to you, you can download the latest APK from APKMirror.