Google’s Phone app has gone through a few changes lately, including becoming widely available for non-Pixel phones and getting a new name (Phone by Google) on the Play Store. However, there may be a bigger rebrand in the works that will align the app with Google’s Workspace suite.
A YouTube ad spotted by Reddit user ‘DominusLux’ for Phone by Google, but with a new name: Google Call. Along with the new name, the ad shows a phone icon sporting the quad-colour design seen on Google’s Workspace productivity apps like Gmail, Calendar and Drive.
Aside from the rebrand, the ad touts Google Call’s “reliable caller ID” feature and shows a picture of a call from a Sunset Pharmacy. 9to5Google suggests that the Phone by Google app could soon gain the name Google Call, as well as the new icon shown in the ad, as part of Google’s ongoing push to unify the look of its apps. Further, the rebrand would better call attention to the intelligent features baked into Phone by Google, such as Call Screen and the new ‘Hold for Me‘ feature, although many of those smart capabilities are Pixel-exclusive.
For those with doubts that Google would change the icon and name of its dialer app, 9to5 also points out that the Phone app, as well as Messages and Duo, fall under the same executive that oversees Workspace. In other words, it wouldn’t be out of place for Google to expand its new productivity app branding to the Phone app. Further, it could indicate rebrands will come to other consumer-facing communication apps like Messages and Duo.
Of course, that change may also put off many people. Google’s new quad-colour icons on a white background have proven unpopular with users, many of which find the icons too similar and hard to tell apart at a glance. Plus, there are plenty of other apps out there using similar multi-colour icons on white backgrounds, which makes for a fairly boring home screen.
Source: Reddit Via: 9to5Google
