Google Chrome is getting a new logo after eight years

Tech giant Google is changing the logo of its popular internet browser Chrome. The subtle change is coming after eight years, and according to Google Chrome designer Elvin Hu, will give the product a “modern experience”.

In a long Twitter thread, Hu said the changes have been made based on the different operating systems Chrome appears on. “On ChromeOS, they use brighter colors without gradients to match the looks of the rest of system icons. On macOS, they look 3D. For Beta and Dev, we applied colorful ribbons to them,” he said.

The new logo started rolling out from February 4 and is currently available on Chrome Canary (the developer version of the browser). It will be rolled out for everyone else over the next few months.

“We simplified the main brand icon by removing the shadows, refining the proportions, and brightening the colors, to align with Google’s more modern brand expression,” said Elvin Hu.

“Fun fact: we also found that placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration, so we introduced a very subtle gradient to the main icon to mitigate that, making the icon more accessible,” he added in a subsequent tweet.

Due to these changes, the blue circle in the middle seems to be bigger. The colors in the logo also look more vibrant.

According to a media report, the main Chrome logo won’t look the same across all systems either. On ChromeOS, the logo will look more colorful to complement the other system icons, while on macOS, the logo will have a small shadow, making it appear as if it’s “popping out” of the dock. Meanwhile, the Windows 10 and 11 version has a more dramatic gradient so that it fits in with the style of other Windows icons.