Gmail Gets Account-Switch Gesture And Hints At Upcoming Dark Mode

Recently, Google has been updating some of its apps to use a quick-switch swipe gesture to swap between your Google accounts. This handy gesture can be a godsend for those of us with multiple Google accounts, and it has finally made its way to Gmail.

While it was already possible to swap accounts, the new gesture makes it much easier, quicker, and intuitive. With a quick swipe up or down over your profile picture, it allows you to switch to your next account, instead of being forced to tap on your profile icon and then select the account. If you prefer that option, then no worries, because it hasn’t been removed.

This is not the only change currently live in Gmail 2019.08.18, though a dark theme has been in-development for the past several releases. A partial darkened look appeared back in June, with strings in today’s update showing that work is still underway. It will presumably apply to the inbox view, but applying a dark mode in the body of emails is not that straightforward.

While not enabled in the main app, Gmail has a darkened homescreen widget with this release. If the system-level Dark Theme is enabled on Android 10 (Night mode on Pie), the widget switches to a dark gray background. Meanwhile, the folder name and compose email button adopts a very light shade of red.

Since Google first started updating its apps with dark themes, the two I’ve been most anticipating are Gmail and the Play Store. It’s nice to see Gmail is making progress, and hopefully, Gmail for Android’s switch gesture is rolling out now via the Play Store with version 2019.08.18. It’s also available for sideloading from APK Mirror.