When Android 12 introduced us to Material You design principles, it was obvious Google would change the icons for its products and apps so all of them shared the company’s brand identity. The app UI updates were quick to roll out, but Google is only just now getting around to changing a bunch of the icons. We recently saw the company change the icon for Google Lens and Google Authenticator, and now it’s extending the same treatment to Play Books.
Google hasn’t changed the icon for Play Books in years, sticking with the blue Play button with a blue book and white bookmark in front. The new icon keeps the triangular play button, albeit with much more rounded-off corners and a darker shade of blue. The book is gone as well, survived by the white ribbon-like bookmark now finished in light blue (via 9to5Google).
The new logo is a cleaner take on the original, with not much changing besides the overall shape and design elements. If you haven’t used Play Books in a while, returning to find this icon shouldn’t be more than a pleasant surprise.
Old Google Play Books logo (Left); New logo (right)
Thankfully, Google didn’t use its typical four-color iconography like it recently did with the Arts & Culture app. Our biggest gripe with that approach is that the same color scheme makes us more reliant on the icon shape to identify the app, which isn’t always the most convenient thing. Plus, this keeps the Play color branding intact: green for Play Games, red for Play Movies & TV, blue for Play Books, and multicolor for the Play Store itself.
The new icon also seems to be a part of the 10-year anniversary celebration for Google Play which so far included new iconography for Play Games and its new PC version beta. However, it is only visible in Google Takeout right now, where you can request a copy of your data. Weirdly enough, Takeout still has the old Arts & Culture icon. We are yet to see the Play Books icon roll out widely, but it shouldn’t be long, given Google’s affinity for homogeneity.
