Google gives the Chrome icon a new look, finally flattens it out

What you need to know

• Google is updating the Chrome icon for the first time in eight years.
• The new icon features more vibrant colors, subtle gradients, and a flatter design.
• Chrome's new icon will be tailored to match each OS that it's on.
• The new icon is arriving for Chrome Canary users before becoming more widely available.

Google is updating the Chrome icon for the first time since 2014, bringing a flatter design that will span across various OSes.

Chrome designer Elvin explains the new look on Twitter, including some of the design choices that should make the new look more accessible to users regardless of whether they're on the best Android phones, iOS, or Windows computers.

Elvin explains how the shadows have been removed compared to the 2014 icon that most of us see now, which makes the icon appear entirely flat, which has been happening gradually as the icon has changed over the years. Colors have also been brightened to make it appear more vibrant, although Elvin explains that there's a subtle gradient to avoid some unpleasantness when having certain red and green shades next to each other.

Additionally, Google gives the icon a slightly different appearance based on the OS to make it feel more native to each platform. That includes an "obviously gradated look" for Windows, brighter colors for on the best Chromebooks, and a 3D look on MacOS. On iOS, the beta app will appear like a blueprint "as a nod to Apple's developer-focused apps," while the stable app will feature updated proportions.

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The new icon should appear today with a new Chrome Canary update, so you may need to change your Chrome browser software channel if you want to check it out now. For those who can wait, it will arrive "in the next few months" across the different platforms.