Spot the difference: Google Chrome changes logo after eight years (2024)

The Google chrome is changing its logo for the first time since 2014 though the changes are quite subtle. A designer for Google Chrome, Elvin Hu took to Twitter to share a first look at the logo’s redesign, and also shared bits about the process behind the changes being made.

Elvin Hu on Twitter wrote, “some of you might have noticed a new icon in Chrome's Canary update today. Yes! we're refreshing Chrome's brand icons for the first time in 8 years."

Elvin Hu shared that “you might ask, ‘why bother with sth. so subtle?’ We tailor Chrome’s experience to each OS, with features like Native Window Occlusion on Windows, day-one M1 support on macOS, Widgets on iOS/Android, and Material You on Android. We want our brand to convey the same level of care."

"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," Hu explains.

Although the these changes are subtle, the blue circle in the middle seems to be bigger, the colours in the logo also look more vibrant. Hu wrote, “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."

According to The Verge, instead of incorporating shadows on the borders between each colour, essentially "raising" them off the screen, the red, yellow, and green are now simply flat.

The main Chrome logo won't look the same across all systems either. On ChromeOS, the logo will look more colourful 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.

As per The Verge, the new icon can be seen if you use Chrome Canary (the developer version of Chrome), but it will start rolling out for everyone else over the next few months.