Google’s Phone app may be rebranded as ‘Google Call’, complete with a new icon

After releasing their Phone app to non-Pixel devices at the beginning of this month, Google may be converting it into something named ‘Google Call’ according to an ad found by a Reddit user. Apparently, the image below was an ad on Youtube for u/DominusLux and it sports a multi-colored icon in the same vein as Google’s other new icon redesigns.

The logo is the same shape as their rebranding of Google Voice, but unlike this new finding, Voice uses only one color to distinguish it from other apps. Google has come under heavy fire as of late for its rebranding efforts. Everyone seems to be divided on whether or not they’re simply bad user experience choices or if the company has some larger plan at play that most just can’t see yet.

The new icon and name for Google’s Phone app are not yet live on the Play Store or even on the web. I personally think that their play here is to go the route Apple has gone and just unify everything and refer to each thing generically. For example, the new app may be branded ‘Google Call’, but if you’re a Google user, you may just one day refer to it as ‘Call’. The same could go for other Google services. Instead of saying ‘Google’ before each one of them, you may just say ‘Call’, ‘News’, ‘Photos’, ‘Calendar’, and so on across the board.

Google is taking some pretty drastic and bold steps this year towards reinventing themselves and some would say it’s not exactly a good thing. Unified branding is fantastic, depending on who you ask, but with several of their services gaining paid features this year, they look to be shifting their strategy in major ways that has many concerned for what the future holds. I think that it’s good to have checks and balances, but I also think that Google knows what they’re doing more than people give them credit for and only time will tell.