Google Sheets is the spreadsheet application within Google’s Workspace productivity suite, which also includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Slides. The app’s visual identity has evolved through two major icon redesigns since 2020, each tied to broader changes across Google’s product family.
Design and History
In October 2020, Google rebranded G Suite as Google Workspace. In the official announcement, Google stated that the new brand reflected “a more connected, flexible experience” and that new four-color icons would appear for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Chat, and more in the coming weeks [1]. The rollout of the new Sheets icon arrived later that month as part of app version 1.20.422.01. The updated icon took the shape of a full page with a white background around it, and compared to the previous version, the Sheets icon showed two fewer cells in its grid [2]. The Docs, Sheets, and Slides icons each kept their respective blue, green, and yellow coloring, but the colored shapes were now presented as a page with a folded corner [3].
In May 2026, Google introduced a fresh visual identity for Google Workspace app icons. The company said the modern design “gives every app a more distinct identity” and that the changes “drive consistency and cohesion across our product suite, while ensuring each individual application remains modern and recognizable on your screen” [4]. Sheets, along with Docs, Slides, Keep, Forms, Sites, and Vids, no longer used a piece of paper as the background container [4]. The new Sheets icon dropped the page motif in favor of a more abstract design that zooms in on spreadsheet cells [5]. The rollout began on May 18, 2026, first appearing in the web app launcher and Chrome’s New Tab page, then spreading to iOS and Android over the following weeks [6]. Google completed the rollout across Android, iOS, and the web by early June 2026 [7].
Meaning and Symbolism
Google’s 2020 Workspace announcement described the new icons as reflecting the more connected and flexible experience of the rebranded suite [1]. The 2020-era Sheets icon used a green page shape with a grid of cells, visually tying the app to its spreadsheet function. In the 2026 redesign, Google moved away from the uniform page-shaped container that had made several Workspace icons look alike, giving each app a more distinct silhouette [4]. The new Sheets mark focuses directly on a cluster of spreadsheet cells, making the app’s purpose immediately legible [5].
Typography and Design
Google’s 2026 icon refresh introduced gradient coloring across the Workspace suite, replacing the flatter, stricter four-color style used since 2020 [8]. The Sheets icon received a softer gradient appearance in its signature green [8]. Save for Gmail, the new Workspace icons no longer use all four Google colors; each app now carries one main hue, with Sheets retaining green as its dominant color [7]. The 2026 Sheets icon also shifted from a vertical page orientation to a horizontal layout, matching the landscape orientation users encounter when working in the spreadsheet itself [9].
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