Here’s why your Gmail icon may be blue right now

Technology can be great, but it can also be a never-ending source of mystery. And it’s constantly changing. It seems like yesterday that we were outraged when Facebook forcibly migrated its users to Timeline, but for the past two years there have been rumors that Timeline could be ending.

The latest change freaking the internet out is the mysteriously blue Gmail icon, which appeared to change color from red around January 26th. But if you’re one of the many who are puzzled by this change, fear not: There’s a pretty simple explanation.

According to Buzzfeed News, the sudden change only affects those who use G Suite, a version of Gmail used for work email addresses. Because of this, users who kept their personal and work emails open in two different tabs saw both a red and a blue envelope.

Okay, but what’s causing the blue icon?

The change in color is apparently connected to a Gmail feature called “Labs.” One Twitter Google expert explained that Labs are ways of customizing the layout and appearance of your inbox. And a Lab called “unread message icon” appears to be behind the color change. If you want to go back to Gmail’s original display, you can simply disable the Lab by clicking on “Settings” in your account and heading over to the “Labs” tab. From there, you can scroll down to “Unread message icon” and click “Disable.” Be sure to save your changes!

But before the cause of the blue Gmail icon came to light, Twitter descended into chaos.

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It’s still not clear if the blue Gmail icon is a permanent feature of the unread message icon, but luckily, it’s nothing to worry about. Red or blue envelope aside, the unread message icon can be used to display how many new messages you have in your inbox, which admittedly does seem pretty cool. And aside from that, Gmail has lots of useful features worth checking out.

Even if the Gmail icon did permanently become blue, we’re pretty sure we’d get used to it after a while. Thankfully, for now it seems that we’ll get to keep that original red and avoid one more annoying technological update.

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