For weeks, Google has been warning users it’s getting ready to redesign its login page, an interface that billions of people use every day to access Gmail and countless websites across the internet. As of this week, the revamp is rolling out, and users are getting a first look.
The internet giant describes the revamp as “a more modern look” that’s meant to conform with the company’s Material Design 3, a set of design principles and standards that unify its various services. Material Design 3 has rounded edges, soft features, and pale pastel colors that you’re already familiar with in products like Gmail and Android. While the layout is different on its face, Google promises the functionality of the login page is unchanged.
The new login page uses a horizontal rather than vertical layout. The corners are less sharp, and the big blue login button has gone from a rectangle to a pill shape. The page surrounding the main window is turned from gray to white, and there’s less uniformity in the size of the various lines of text and logos, allowing for more negative space between the words and buttons. It lets the page look less cluttered, even while it maintains the same number of design elements.
According to Google, the updated login page will roll out to all users on both mobile and desktop, including enterprise workspace accounts and personal accounts. The rollout started on February 21st, 2024, and will hit every Google user on the planet in staggered waves between now and March 24th.
Google is taking pains to make this update slowly. Users have seen warnings letting them know the shift is coming, and the login page has remained unchanged far longer than the rest of Google’s services, which has seen a revamp across the board over the last few years.
That’s because, unlike the look of Gmail or YouTube, for example, the login page is one of the most sensitive touch points on Google’s platform, if not the internet as a whole. Users need to trust and recognize that they’re looking at the real, authentic login page, and not a hacker’s attempt at phishing their credentials.