Gmail settings page redesign explained: new menu, extra steps
Android Authority's teardown of Gmail version 2026.10.05.993506826 found code for an in-development Gmail settings page redesign that folds the Android app's separate "General" and per-account menus into labeled categories, Android Authority reported today. The outlet says it only got the screens to render through "a lot of tinkering," and Google has not started testing the redesign with users or given any rollout timeline.
The clearest effect lands on anyone juggling more than one Gmail account on a single phone. The surfaced code points to a settings flow that adds extra steps for switching between accounts, even as the rest of the menu gets easier to scan. Nothing described here is live, and the reporting covers Android only.
What the Gmail settings page redesign changes for Android users
Gmail's current Android settings page is simple but scattered. Open it today and there's a "General" entry at the top, followed by every account added to the device. Tapping "General" opens app-wide controls; tapping an account opens settings specific to that inbox, splitting related options across two screens that don't connect.
The build Android Authority surfaced folds both tracks into one page organized under category headers, with names like "Email notifications," "Inbox customizations," and "Writing assistance" nesting toggles that currently sit in flat, unlabeled lists. Those category labels exist in the code, Android Authority confirmed, though the outlet hasn't mapped every individual setting that will eventually live inside each one. The full contents of the redesigned menu are still partly a guess.
Chat and Meet settings give the clearest before-and-after. Those controls currently sit scattered among unrelated options, meaning disabling Chat or Meet inside Gmail means hunting through settings that have nothing to do with either feature. The surfaced screens move those controls into their own dedicated categories, which could make that toggle easier to find if the layout ships as shown.
Android Authority added one useful data point: the redesigned page "seems to be working as expected" in its own hands-on testing. That's the outlet's own observation from forcing the screens to render, not a guarantee from Google that the layout is finished or close to a public release.
Current navigation vs. the reported account-switching flow
The Gmail Android settings redesign also changes how switching between accounts works inside the settings page, and that's the real trade-off buried in this teardown.
Right now, tapping a different account from the settings list opens that account's controls directly. No backing out to another screen first.
Under the surfaced redesign, changing which account's settings you're viewing would mean leaving the settings page, switching accounts through Gmail's account switcher, then reopening settings from scratch, per Android Authority. That's the behavior shown in the current build, not a feature Google has confirmed it will ship.
If Google ships this flow as shown, people who regularly compare settings across two accounts, a work inbox and a personal one, could face extra navigation every time they check or adjust something on the second account. The teardown shows that mechanic exists in today's code; it doesn't show how Google expects people to actually use it day to day, or whether a later build trims the extra steps before this reaches anyone else.
On the other side, a flatter, categorized menu could make a one-off change, swapping a notification sound or toggling a writing-assistance feature, quicker to find than digging through today's nested lists. That's a reasonable read on the layout as surfaced, but it hasn't been tested outside Android Authority's own build.
Why Gmail's settings already needed a cleanup
Gmail's settings menu already governs more than inbox appearance. Google's support documentation describes a toggle for "smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet" that covers automatic email categorization, Smart Compose, Smart Reply, and the summary cards that appear above certain messages, all folded into one consent setting, according to Google's help documentation.
That's one of three separate smart-feature toggles Google documents. A distinct "smart features in Google Workspace" setting and a separate "smart features in other Google products" setting each control their own experiences, and changing one does not affect the others, per the same documentation. That's a lot of overlapping consent logic sitting behind a menu that, until now, hasn't been organized around what each toggle actually does.
None of this proves the new Gmail settings page will touch how those smart-feature or privacy settings are labeled. The teardown Android Authority described shows reorganized categories for notifications, inbox customization, and writing tools, not a documented change to how consent controls are grouped. Whether a finished redesign makes those settings easier to find, or leaves them exactly where they sit today, is still an open question.
Google's broader settings overhaul
Gmail isn't the only Google app getting this treatment. Android Authority separately reported an in-development settings redesign for the main Google app, possibly moving to a card-based layout with categories like "Your App Experience" and "Privacy & Safety," and surfacing previously buried controls such as Search personalization, SafeSearch, and Results about you onto the main screen, Android Authority reported earlier this week. That report followed an earlier Android Authority sighting of a similar redesign in Gemini last month.
None of this establishes that Gmail will adopt the same card-based style, or that the two redesigns share a release schedule. It does suggest Google is revisiting cluttered settings menus across more than one app around the same stretch of time.
What's still unconfirmed
Android Authority's reporting is a code teardown, not a Google announcement. It establishes that the category labels, consolidated layout, and reported account-switcher behavior exist in Gmail's current Android code. It does not establish that any of this reaches a wider audience, or when.
The report doesn't identify a public way to enable the screens; Android Authority says it took deliberate effort just to make them render. And the reporting says nothing about whether Gmail's web interface or iOS app will see a comparable change, since the teardown covers the Android build only.
What to check before this ships
There's no confirmed rollout date, so treat the surfaced screens as evidence of work in progress, not an update headed to a phone anytime soon. Trying to force the layout through developer tricks isn't worth chasing based on what's confirmed so far.
Anyone managing multiple Gmail accounts can still build the habit of double-checking which account is active before changing a notification, label, or inbox setting in the current app. That's a precaution worth keeping regardless of whether the new account-switching flow ever ships. Watching for a Google announcement or checking Gmail's own release notes remains the more reliable way to know when this moves from in-development code to something actually worth testing.
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