Google is redesigning its major products with Material Design 2 and now, it is testing Chrome Canary's new UI following Android and possibly Gmail.
Chrome Canary's New Look
Corresponding to Google's recent obsession with more rounded corners, Chrome Canary's new look ditches the trapezoid bars and the rectangular Omnibar. The new look of the search bar is the same as that in Chrome version 66 on Android, which was released in mid-April.
The buttons and text input boxes are now more rounded too. Chrome also adopts that modern design look that puts the UI elements against a stark white background and uses the "Product Sans" font that the design documents now call as "Google Sans."
Material Design 2 Is Making Everything Rounder
However, it seems that the background tabs will not retain the shape. Instead, these will be in the same color as the window frame with only a vertical line separating them.
It's what fans more or less expected from the new UI after the company had launched Android P Developer Preview in March. There has been a lot of talk regarding Google's design choices in what industry observers have been calling as Material Design 2. Rounded search bars are increasingly becoming common among the company's products, including Maps and Feed.
Apart from these design adjustments, though, the changes are far from drastic. The plus button is now on the left side for Windows and other platforms while it remains on the right side for macOS.
The avatar icon was also moved next to the address bar, and it looks like the Omnibar dropdown now has a floating effect.
New UI Available On Chrome Canary For Windows
These design changes are available on version 68 of Chrome Canary, an experimental version of Google Chrome for Windows. As of this writing, it is not available yet on Mac.
Those who are interested to see the update should have the latest Canary installed and then enable the experimental flag by typing chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md in the search bar. The new UI is named "Refresh," which can be found in the drop-down menu.
Material Design 2 was first announced in February as the successor to the current Material Design that first appeared on Android 5.0. So far, it is bringing a lighter design to Google's products, but not much is known about it still.
More information about it is expected at the Google I/O Conference on May 8 to 10.
