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The recent update for iOS 10.1 of Gmail, the email server par excellence, owned by Google, has surprised some with a new interface. Breaker? No. Old-fashioned? Neither. Simply traced to the version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The iOS version was so far more sober, with fewer colors, giving a more flat image, it was a translation of the desktop interface and little else. Here is an example of this:
As we can see, few colors, the write button in the upper right corner, quite disguised and in the option to manage accounts we have a very large and very little used menu. Since the beginning of the week, however, we have a new and renewed interface: much more presence of colors, icons for each of the senders and a simpler account management menu, with the accounts placed in the upper area, leaving the possibility of accessing the different folders, and being able to view the messages pending without leaving the management menu. In addition, the draft button has become much more important to the stand in a circle above the own inbox, just at the height of the thumb, making the process simple and intuitive.
In general, we find a step for the better in the mail application, which reminds us a lot of the interface that we had long ago in Google Drive and its Documents and Spreadsheets. But doesn't it remind us of something else ? Of course, this mobile Gmail design is the one that Android 6.0 Marshamallow users have enjoyed for a long time, with exactly the same features. Here's a screenshot of the Android version:
Google has wanted to match its applications for both operating systems aesthetically, but it has given the advantage of the one that plays at home and has been slow to offer a suitable update for Apple. After doing so, the main applications of Google, Gmail, Maps, YouTube and Drive already have a common interface for both operating systems.
On the way to standardization?
iOS and Android have been in competition for a long time, some things are copied from others and they always take credit. But regardless of the operating system itself, there are some applications of majority use, such as Twitter or Facebook, which have notable differences in their mobile versions of Apple and Android. Facebook in particular uses a bubble system for its Messenger that the iPhone does not have, and in the case of Twitter, the commands are moved, in Android they are at the top of the screen and in iOS at the bottom. On the other hand, WhatsApp orSpotify would be examples of the opposite, applications with identical interfaces between them. After seeing this decision by Google, are we on the way to a standardization in graphic matters ? iOS is one of Apple's great assets to justify its high prices and exclusivity, could this collapse when users see fewer and fewer differences between operating systems?
