Gmail for Android updates status bar icons for Google Chat and Spaces

After the failure of Hangouts, Google has shifted its focus to Google Chat and Spaces. Both of them are Google's attempt to capture the messaging app market. These apps can be used for professional work just like Slack. Google maintains both the apps and updates them with the latest features regularly. Both the features are available on the Gmail app on Android.

You can access both features in Gmail from the bottom bar present in the Gmail app. The problem with this integration of all the different platforms on one app was the notification. It was not a big problem but, whenever you receive a notification, all three platforms show the same icon. Whether you receive an email, a chat, or a message on spaces, you will be having a double chat bubble icon placed on top of one another. But, now Google has changed it in the new Gmail app. Now, you will see different icons for different platform.

New status bar icons

As you can see in the image above, there are different icons for mails, Spaces, and Chat. The icon for Chat is a chat bubble with an empty interior, for Spaces, it is the icon with three persons standing next to each other and then we have our normal Gmail icon. As you can notice, these are the same icons present on the bottom bar of the Gmail app which makes them easy to recognize. So, now it is easy to recognize the kind of message received just by looking at the status bar icon.

Currently, these status bar icons are seen only on a single Android device running the 2022.02.20.x version of the Gmail app. The version is not available for every device as of now, but it might be available for more devices soon. The move comes as Gmail for iOS begins to display the Chat sender's profile photo beginning this month.

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