Gmail's new Material 3 Expressive design is secretly hitting some inboxes

What you need to know

• Google’s bold Material 3 Expressive look is finally creeping into Gmail.
• The interface swaps heavy color blocks for lighter, raised cards with rounded edges, making emails pop with more depth.
• More colors are mixing in thanks to the card layout, adding layers and a richer feel across the app.

Google already gave a sneak peek of its bold Material 3 Expressive style in a few of its own apps. Now, we’re getting a clearer picture as that fresh look slowly starts landing in some users’ Gmail.

Material 3 Expressive adds some serious flair with responsive animations that make your phone feel way more fluid. Dismissing a notification now comes with this neat little peel-away motion and a matching haptic nudge.

Gmail’s latest update (2025.05.11) seems to have synced up with Google quietly pulling the trigger on a server-side change, setting the stage for its Material 3 Expressive revamp. Over on Telegram, SparkRadar caught the visual shake-up in action and shared some snaps of the fresh new look (via Android Authority).

At present, Gmail’s look leans on a bold primary color for most of the main screen. That said, areas like the Search bar, bottom nav, and Compose button stand out with their own accent.

But with the Material 3 Expressive update, the whole layout gets a makeover. The message list now sits on its own raised card with soft, rounded corners and a lighter backdrop, giving it more depth and focus.

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Color explosion

The Compose button has also had a glow-up. Now, it’s got a chunkier font and the pencil icon is now filled in for a bolder look.

One standout feature of Gmail’s Material 3 Expressive revamp is the burst of fresh colors all over the place. Thanks to the new card-style layout, there’s way more room to play with tones and shades, making everything feel more layered and visually dynamic.

On one Gmail account, the account switcher has popped out of the search bar. Other screenshots still show it tucked inside the search bar, which makes sense since server-side rollouts like this often hit accounts individually and not all at once.

You can spot the card-style UI making another appearance on the email view screen.

Pill-shaped swipes

Also, true to Google’s earlier teasers, Gmail’s Material 3 Expressive update brings in a new pill-shaped button animation that pops up when you swipe around.

Like mentioned before, these design tweaks are rolling out slowly through server-side switches. We’re still waiting to see how the rest of Material 3 Expressive shapes up across the rest of Google’s apps and tools.