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Google Magnifier’s new icon comes with an annoying little bug

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Why This Matters

Google Magnifier's recent update introduces a vibrant new icon aligned with Google's modern visual style, but it also inadvertently breaks the app’s themed icon feature, causing a less polished user experience. This highlights ongoing challenges in maintaining visual consistency across app updates and the importance of quality control in UI design for accessibility tools.

Key Takeaways

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority

TL;DR Google Magnifier is getting a redesigned icon with a blue-to-purple gradient.

The refreshed icon follows the newer visual style Google has been bringing to its apps.

The update appears to break Magnifier’s themed icon, leaving a blank colored circle instead.

Google has been steadily refreshing the icons of its first-party apps, and Magnifier is the latest Pixel app to get the treatment. A new update gives Google Magnifier a more colorful gradient icon, although it also appears to have broken the app’s themed icon in the process.

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Version 2.0.0.965719431 of Magnifier is now rolling out with the redesigned icon. The old predominantly blue design has been replaced by a lighter background, while the magnifying glass is thicker and uses a blue-to-purple gradient. The square behind it is now filled in as well. You can see the difference between the old icon on the left and the new one on the right, below.

AssembleDebug / Android Authority

Magnifier is Google’s accessibility app for Pixel 5 and newer phones, using the camera to help you zoom in on small text and other details. It also offers tools such as brightness and contrast controls, as well as live text search through the camera viewfinder. There don’t appear to be any changes inside the app itself.

There’s one less polished part of the update. With themed icons enabled, the previous version of Magnifier displayed a monochrome version of the app’s magnifying-glass logo that matched the phone’s Material You colors. On the latest version, we’re instead just seeing a blank colored circle.

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