This might be a bigger move than The Verge is alerting to:
The Verge headline: Gmail’s new look is about to appear for more people, even if they didn’t ask for it
Sub-headline: The new UI lines up Gmail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet in their own side rail.
By Richard Lawler@rjcc Jun 28, 2022, 7:29pm EDT
https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/28/23187304/google-gmail-ui-…
Google started rolling out an updated user interface for Gmail in February that pulls Meet, Chat, and Spaces closer and applies more of its Material You styling effects. Starting today, it’s becoming opt-out instead of opt-in, so your account will switch over to the new view by default pretty soon.
It’s not a huge change, but as Google transitions through its current flavor-of-the-week messaging app and weaves its Workspace suite into a better competitor for Office, this puts more of a focus on the updated experiences.