With Google back in the tablet game again with thePixel Tablet, the company has been updating its first-party services to make better use of the additional space on bigger screens. While Gmail quickly made use of a dual-pane interface with a list of emails on the left and a detailed view on the right, it never received a left-aligned navigation rail to replace the bottom bar. That’s finally changing, as a server-side update is rolling out to further improve the email client’s tablet interface.
The tweak is simple enough, but nevertheless effective. As9to5Google reports, the elements arranged at the bottom of the email app are moved to a new sidebar on the left, with the same options available in it as on the bottom. If you have Chats and Spaces enabled, the shortcuts for these sections will also be visible in the sidebar. Along with the bottom bar elements, the Gmail redesign also moves the compose button and the hamburger menu to the sidebar, leaving the view of your email list unobstructed by any further buttons.
The tweak is rolling out with version 2025-08-24.x, though your mileage may vary. It seems that in addition to the new release, a server-side switch is also involved. So far, we haven’t been able to recreate the new look on our Pixel Tablet running this version of Gmail.
The navigation rail is a component Google introduced to Material Design relatively early on. It’s supposed to be used in bigger layouts only, with prominent examples including web apps like Gmail itself. Given that on big horizontal interfaces, vertical space is usually scarce, moving the bottom navigation to the left side makes sense to give content more space to work with. Other Google apps have also been updated to take advantage of navigation rails before Gmail, like Google Photos, Files, Home, Play Store, Drive, and News, to name a few.
At the same time, Google still has some work ahead when it comes to making the navigation bar transparent. The new Gmail looks like it still has a solid background behind the navigation bar, losing some precious pixels that could be used to display content.
Interestingly enough, this new Gmail layout has been available on book-style foldables for many for a longer time now. It’s unclear what the holdup for the tablet interface was, as the tablet and foldable UX isn’t too different. Many interface elements available on foldables are usually also available on tablets and vice versa.
