“Google is sitting on a massive clothing and home textiles opportunity.”
Google’s newly redesigned Workspace app icons are getting dragged, joked about, and turned into memes across social media after users noticed the company quietly rolling out fresh gradient-style logos for apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Slides. The redesign was meant to modernize Google’s visual identity and create what the company described as more “consistency and cohesion” across Workspace apps. Instead, the internet quickly turned the update into a meme competition.
Users on X began creating their own versions of the icons using real-life objects and fashion items. Google Docs became Doc Martens boots. Google Sheets became literal bed sheets. Google Slides turned into sandals. One viral post joked that “Google could be doing so much more,” while another mocked the redesign by turning Google’s apps into a fake fashion and textile brand. The memes spread fast enough to catch the attention of Google CEO Sundar Pichai himself.
One user, Trung Phan, posted an edited image showing shorts, sandals, jackets, and bedsheets as replacements for Google app icons and captioned it, “Google is sitting on a massive clothing and home textiles opportunity.” Pichai responded with two thinking-face emojis. That reaction only made the trend grow even bigger online. The internet then doubled down on the jokes.
Users started creating even more exaggerated versions of the icons, including leather jackets for Google Drive and fashion-inspired redesigns for other Workspace apps. One X user wrote, “I’m a fan of this trend,” as the meme wave kept spreading. The rollout itself is part of a wider visual redesign happening across Google’s ecosystem. Over the past few months, Google has been slowly shifting many of its apps away from the old flat-color design into softer gradients, rounded edges, and more blended colors. Gmail, Maps, Photos, Drive, Calendar, and Meet are all moving toward this newer visual style. (“androidcentral.com”
According to reports around the redesign, Google wants its apps to feel more connected visually while also aligning them with its newer design direction. Some analysts believe the gradient-heavy look is tied directly to Google’s broader branding push. The company has increasingly used glowing gradients and softer visuals across newer products and services.
However, many users online feel the redesign created a different problem. Older Google icons were already criticized for looking too similar. Some users say the newer versions are still difficult to distinguish quickly, especially when several apps sit together on crowded home screens or browser tabs. This explains why the meme trend exploded so quickly.
The similarities between the icons made it easy for people online to joke that Google’s apps now look like random household products rather than software tools. Ironically, the memes may have helped Google more than hurt it. Unlike some redesign controversies that trigger pure backlash, the response to Google’s icons has mostly been playful. People are mocking the designs, but they are also engaging with them heavily.
That level of attention matters. Big tech companies spend millions trying to make visual changes noticeable. Google’s redesign achieved that almost instantly, largely because social media users transformed the rollout into entertainment. The timing also matters. Google is currently pushing a much broader redesign across Android and Workspace products as it enters a new phase for its ecosystem. The company has been updating logos, app interfaces, and design systems to better match its newer products and services.
The Icon redesign is connected to Google’s Material 3 Expressive design language, which focuses on softer visuals, gradients, and more fluid shapes across apps and services. The redesign is still rolling out gradually, meaning some users are seeing a mix of old and new icons depending on device and platform. The rollout has also added to the confusion online, with some users noticing changes only in launchers or browser menus while older versions still appear elsewhere.
Google itself has not publicly addressed the meme wave directly. The company also did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the online reactions, according to Business Insider. Still, the internet already appears to have decided what the redesign means culturally. For many users, Google’s new app icons no longer look like productivity tools. They look like sneakers, jackets, bedsheets, and sandals pretending to be software.
And somehow, that may have made the redesign even more memorable than Google originally planned.
