Google’s new blue Gmail stars and markers have users seeing red

If you’re looking at your Gmail and feeling a bit blue, maybe there’s a reason for that. Google is rolling out a replacement for those bright yellow stars and important message indicators that guided you in a sea of lookalike messages.

Users on Reddit and Google Support Forums are venting about the change.

Where there was once sunny yellow that stood out for those markers, there’s now a blue that blends in. Some people got the change and started complaining two months ago, while others have just opened their Gmail in the past few hours to the new hue. (Anecdotal self-insert here: I still have yellow indicators in my Gmail accounts.)

Gmail acknowledged the change as a deliberate change for accessibility purposes in a post on X last week. “We updated our default star and “Important” label colors from yellow to blue to meet modern accessibility standards,” it wrote. “This change ensures inboxes are clearer, easier to read, and more inclusive for everyone.” The post is signed with a blue heart.

The accessibility argument

Yellow is indeed a difficult color when it comes to meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set out by the World Wide Web Consortium.

When presented against a white background, yellow often does not have enough contrast to adhere to the contrast ratio that WCAG recommends. It can be tweaked to be darker, which can make it almost a brown, or it can be placed against contrasting colors, which would make Gmail look too messy.

A bright blue solves the issue by easily reaching and often surpassing the recommended contrast ratio. Of course, blue is also highly present in Gmail’s color scheme, which makes it more difficult to distinguish on a cognitive level. While the WCAG does address issues like neurodivergency, which could be affected by this change, the blue hue does not violate the guidelines.

How you can change it back

If you have gotten the yellow to blue change and want your yellow stars ack, a simple setting change can do that.

Go to going to Settings > See all settings > General > Stars and there you’ll be able to select it from the star colors. One thing to note is that this will be only for messages going forward.

The important marker color cannot be changed but you can remove it if you find it’s cluttering the screen. Go to Settings > See all settings > Inbox > Importance markers > and select No markers.