The new Google Docs and Drive UI starts rolling out today

Google has started to roll out an updated UI for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides that’s meant to fit in with its Material Design 3 language. The apps still work the same way they used to, but Google writes in an announcement post that they should now be a bit more “simplified,” with less clutter and a few improvements and additions.

Writing about the update when it was announced in February, my colleague Jay Peters noted that it’s similar to Gmail’s new look, which makes sense given that Google says it’s trying to “streamline core collaboration journeys across our products.”

I’ll point you toward Jay’s article for a bit more info on the new design, but the important news for today is that it’s going to start showing up in the wild. So if you’ve noticed that something looks a bit different while you’re writing or working on a spreadsheet, that may be why.

Google says that it’ll be rolling out over the next 15 days for users on rapid release domains and that everyone should have it by March 25th. The company says it’ll be coming to all Workspace and personal users as well as people who are still on its legacy G Suite Basic and Business plans.