http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/19/gmail-themes-thats-totally-ninja/
http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/gmailthemes.jpg

see also http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-19-n72.html

PR of Google Germany told me, that the themes are available too all users by tomorrow.

cool. It will become harder and harder over time to add new features to Gmail. I wonder if they have disruptive features left in the box...

now announced:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/spice-up-your-inbox-with-colors-and.html

Great! And the we'll want to add our custom themes...

I don't think it will be complex to add features : a theme is just a CSS file...

If you code well your div, html and other things, you don't have to adapt your code when you change style... I think Gmail 2.0 was a way to recode everything in a good manner...

Note that it changes the theme automatically one your account has been enabled as the default scheme isn't identical to the "classic" (old style) one. That said, the "classic" theme isn't identical to the old one either – it's just very similar but the border is different.

Some themes react to time of day in the same way as iGoogle themes do, though interestingly it asks for your location first although I must have told Google my location in a dozen times in various guises.

I didn't mean that Luka:
in general, it will be harder to find some new innovative ideas to implement.

the gmail posting is offline

Nope, not in the UK at least.

Hard to find innovative ideas? Why? The UI is the last thing you think about when you come with new (technical) ideas...
Example: I want Reader to be built into GMail (but natively – I want a link to Reader below the Inbox). Why something like that will be stopped by the appearance?

I'm not saying that appearance is the blocker.

PierreS
They all got you wrong but I understand you, I think :D

no themes here. nuts.

anyone in the UK got it?

nope. Not so far. My sister with a newer account in France has it though.

Sorry for posting here again but... Have you noticed that in the thumbnails from the official post the GMail logo is not always the official/classic one? Is cool in some way, but isn't it too much un-branding?
Look at the (2,3) and (3,3) thumbnail... Is just an ugly font. I'd preffer to see something more GMail-ish...
(I know, my english is horrible, sorry)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JE4qNpFW6Yk/SSR7sIr8y_I/AAAAAAAAAK8/8zfWsFB_wCw/s1600-h/skins_grid.png

I got it this afternoon, rather suddenly. The default theme changes...

Wow, its been one crazy year for Gmail. So many features! :)

Also, Louis sent in these – does anyone know, is that the new default view? (The right-hand side labels box might be the Gmail labs setting.)

http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-themes/new-colors-in-gmail-1.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-themes/new-colors-in-gmail-2.jpg
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-themes/new-colors-in-gmail-3.jpg

Wow, thats amazing feature!

[signature removed]

The right hand labels box is just a labs feature. It is not part of the new theme. As far as I can tell none of the themes actually rearrange any of the content.

The "Terminal" theme is supposed to be bare bones I guess. It's pretty horrible...

http://sam.davyson.com/files/secure/misc/imgs/Picture%203.png

I notice that it hasn't been rolled out for Google Apps for your domain yet.

I have that now. So I log in and it automatically changes to the new theme (the default, even more minimalistic one).

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7503/eace0.png

I wonder why features get launched in Gmail and it takes ages for them to reach Google Apps

I'm still waiting for "Always use HTTPS" on my Google Apps

sam: your terminal has a different google logo then the one in the oriinal post, and to be honest, I wasn't planning on chaning my theme, but if I could make the terminal view black and white I would definitely give it a go.

Is there a way to get the old theme back? I don't really like the new themes (even classic)

I would also like to get my old theme back. I think there should be an option to do it somewhere inside the settings tab.

I'm pro the old one as well...
I wish they'll give the option.

They do, it says 'Older Version' in the bar next to 'Settings' (top right)

The 'Older Version' also removes labs etc.

I never got a Labs tab in the first place :(
I dont have a Themes tab either but it has changed to the newer version.

I'm somewhat worried about this – to me it just looks like unnecessary bloat GMail doesn't need. I'd rather they made the default interface perfect. To me GMail initially felt like a clean Firefox installation and now I feel that too many extensions have been installed.

Splasho, I feel like with Gmail's recent changes, it's a more solid base to build things like Labs and Themes on. But people don't have to go crazy with e.g. Labs if they don't want to. Personally, I love some of the Labs that they have. And I love my "Minimalist" theme. :)

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/145133.html#id145168

"I wonder why features get launched in Gmail and it takes ages for them to reach Google Apps

I'm still waiting for "Always use HTTPS" on my Google Apps"

Rohit Srivastwa –

If you are not the admin of the Gogle Apps account, it's possible that the admin selected to "Automatically enforce Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections when your users access Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Sites." Which might be why there is no option.
https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/DomainSettings

If you are the admin go to https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/DomainSettings and by New Services and Features make sure there is a check by "Turn on new features (like group chat or colored labels)Turn on new features in this domain when they are launched to Google consumers (before Google supports them for organizations using Google Apps)"

To cooooooooooooool to be useful, but at least make some cool people feel cool and good.

I decided to wait some time. We just don't know if is there a security hole or not. Yes it's new, it's nice but I am just paranoiac if is about my privacy.
I wouldn't like to see my account in other hands.

Asti Nomia: I can't imagine how changing the graphics could introduce a security hole. I may be wrong, but I am confident that any risk from themes is negligible next to risks introduced by guessable passwords, keyloggers, and plain old social engineering.

Has anyone else noticed the style of buttons used in the google screenshots? (archive|report spam|delete) They are more like google docs style. I wonder if we'll get those soon.

dpneal: I think the buttons are Safari default buttons?

uk users: Don't know if you've got themes yet but if you always want to be first with updates change your language in settings to English (US).

In general I like the changes. New classic is nice as is "Shiny". Although there are some AWFUL ones in there :)

I wonder how the Gmail/ Googlemail branding issue plays into this, as all these themes have the gmail logo on them.

Anyone from the UK or Germany got the new themes?

dpneal: I don't think the butttons are Safari default, as they seem stuck to each other (archive+report-spam+delete).

I'm from the UK set to ENglish (US) and I have Google Mail branded new stuff, it all works.

Matt, you are of course correct that I'm not being forced to use them! But somehow when an application has too many features I don't use (I'm not saying GMail's got there yet) it feels bloated and unwieldly, if nothing else because it's harder to find the features I want in all the tabs of settings.

I'm in the UK, I have the themes enabled in my recently created Gmail/Google Mail but not in my old account.

I think the buttons have changed in Chrome.

Now whenever I hover over a button like 'archive' – my cursor switches to the 'hand', whereas before it would stay as an arrow. Does this mean that the buttons have now become 'links'?

works from Germany... but set to English(US)

Luke, I'm also in German but still waiting for this to appear.

It's live now in Ireland

Nothing here in the U.K. yet on any of my 3 accounts made over the last 4 years, all set to U.S. english.

Such a shame :(Hopefully I'll get it soon, I really like the idea of the theme which changes depending on time of day. iGoogle is good like that, although I don't find much use for those custom homepages.

My latest account now has it, still waiting on the ones made in 06 and 04.

Do the themes that change do so based on time or weather? Tree seems to be cloudy now, because it's cloudy where I am ... do any of the others go dark when it's nighttime? I think some iGoogle themes do that.

My favourite themes right now are Tree & Shiny. Some of them are shocking!

my gmail look and feel has definitely changed. but i cant see any "theme" option. i guess that its being rolled out i suppose.

the "chat" box on the left seems to be broken – normally that has a list of my contacts telling me who is logged in or not.

oh wait -no – the box is back now -had to "expand" it to view it.

(UK here..)

Andy & Philipp:
>Anyone from the UK or Germany got the new themes?

I have it (i am using an @googlemail.com adress)

I've got it now in the UK on all six accounts I've got access to. (I'm using both @gmail.com and @googlemail.com addresses.)

Jut got it here (UK, but @gmail.com)

The main problem I have with the themes is it dosn't change the gadgets which makes the dark themes look ugly.

Currently using the Tree theme, looks amazing!

I think that the terminal one would be quite cool if it didn't have the default Google Mail logo (rather than the ASCII style Gmail one)

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/145133.html#id145202

Has anyone got the new style buttons now? I've just got themes enabled, but still have the old style buttons.

dpneal, aren't they just Safari style buttons?

Wow. Just noticed the login page has themes enabled too:

http://blogoscoped.com/files/more/gmail-login-themed.png

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=mail

A slightly bigger screenshot:

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2660/gmailthemedloginyf2.png

Got it now. Can't say I like the very visible blue border, so I switched to classic for now. Let's see later on :)

Tony, I don't think so. Not according to this image anyway...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JE4qNpFW6Yk/SSSRNDDTP7I/AAAAAAAAAMU/LWtu9klI-Bo/s1600/skins_grid.png

This looks more Google Docs style buttons.

Ah, sorry. I was checking the wrong screenshots. Perhaps that's just their browser's skin.

After a bunch of trials on the new little thing, I changed back to the default as too colored themes bring no fun instead I am annoyed by its too colored style. Why not simple and practical?