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Google Workplace’s rebranding came with icon redesigns for a number of its core services, giving them a more uniform but horribly colorful icon set, and sparing a few of them slightly. Our biggest gripe with the newly found consistency was that it was more difficult to distinguish between apps at a glance. It looks like our issues are going to get even worse as the Indian version of Google Pay receives similar treatment, and this time it’s worse.
From the app icon to the start screen, everything now has this new logo, replacing the old GPay branding. The icon consists of two nested U-shaped objects that use Google’s distinct four-color palette. It’s not entirely clear, however, what that number actually is – perhaps a wallet or a pair of banknotes. Google could also try to cleverly create the letter G (or even P, sort of), but you never know.
An app icon should ideally illustrate the functionality of that app, but this new Google Pay logo fails that test, or at least makes it difficult to decipher the shape, defying its very purpose. As flashy as Workplace’s new icons are, they at least stick to the original outline (like Gmail and Drive) or use more recognizable iconography (like Meet).
Let’s play a game …
Along with the new icon, the payment app will now be called simply GPay, instead of the full label for the Google Pay app. This shouldn’t be a big deal since Google has been using the GPay brand in some places for some time.
These changes are uploaded with the Google Pay beta app which recently had a flutter rewrite. You can join the official beta from the play store or check out the app v116.1.9 (beta) from APK Mirror to see them for yourself. Given that we expect the new flutter version of Tez to replace the international Google Pay app next year, the new logo should eventually reach everyone after a beta phase here in India.
Google explains
Google Pay’s new cryptic icon left us scratching our heads, trying to figure out what it really meant. A brief explanation from Google India’s Caesar Sengupta finally clears things up with an official story that inspired this change: The two nested shapes are meant to represent a physical wallet – something Google Pay has been trying to replace virtually for years now, arguing for more and more of the cards we carry. While this clarification allows us to conclude, it still fails to explain how the new design is so different from the current one.
2/3: trip to India. We recently enabled NFC payments with credit cards, introduced the ACE credit card with Axis Bank and there are more to come. For many in India today, GPay is actually replacing the physical wallet and everything in it – cash, bills, cards,
– Caesar Sengupta (@caesars) November 7, 2020
Most average users I showed this logo to thought it was some sort of a “link” and couldn’t associate it with a recognized app like Google Pay – although it was a sort of Google’s product was quite clear. That certainly seems proof enough that the new logo could be more unfathomable than Google was aiming for. On the other side, merchants will once again have to replace the existing brand, which fair replaced the Google Wallet and Android Pay signs, as reported by one Twitter user (below).
The problem with changing the Google Pay logo is that companies have just started replacing the Google Wallet and Android Pay stickers with the current Google Pay logo. Why can’t you stick to one long-term branding?
– Carson (@ csaldanha3) November 9, 2020
- Thank you:
- prajjwal porwal,
- Anthony maki
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