New Google Chat logo gets possible early reveal

We spotted a new logo for Google Chat in May, but it did not get announced with the homescreen redesign that also adds Duet AI and audio huddles a few months later. What should be the final version of that new Google Chat logo has now leaked.

The current Google Chat logo debuted with the other Workspace redesigns in 2020. While Gmail, Drive, and Meet got the four-color treatment, Chat remained (light) green in a nod to Hangouts with overlapping message bubbles.

As Google Chat is set to get a big modernization, a new logo makes sense to bring it in line with other productivity apps. During a presentation in May, Google showed such a logo (on the left):

A new icon (on the right) has just been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Google Chat is not explicitly mentioned, but the listing makes reference to “downloadable instant messaging software.”

Google describes the logo as such: “The mark consists of a hollow multi-colored square “speech bubble” with three rounded corners and a flattened upper right corner. The flattened upper right corner is in red. The left and upper sides are formed by a blue line followed by a dark blue square with a rounded corner at the top right. The right side and bottom are formed by green rounded lines followed by a dark green square at the bottom right. There is a green indentation at the bottom of the square. There is a yellow line at the top of the rectangle.”

Green is the predominant color in this new version with some blue and yellow, but only a tiny amount of red, just like the May variant. The outline of the logo is a chat bubble, but there’s a second one at the center, and it has been flipped. In this new version, the shape of both chat bubbles are now more identical.

To my eye, the May logo looks cleaner and more elegant. The top-right corner of the new icon has a chunk missing from it that seems visually distracting. Regardless, this logo does clearly convey a chat app.

Updates to Chat are rolling out over the coming months and it would make sense for Google to have it coincide with this new logo.