In early 2022, Google introduced a new Material You-inspired look for Gmail on the web. This redesign began rolling out to everyone in June 2022. It features a new sidebar that takes up more space. You can hide it.
The new layout adds a sidebar specifically for shortcuts to other Google services related to Gmail. Shortcuts include Gmail, Google Chat, Spaces, and Meet. If you don’t use these additional services, the sidebar just takes up horizontal space.
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To disable this new sidebar, head to Gmail in a desktop browser such as Google Chrome and click the gear icon in the top right.
Next, select “Customize” under the “Chat and Meet” section in the menu.
Deselect “Google Chat” and “Google Meet”, then click “Done”.
Gmail will ask to reload the page and when it returns you will see that the new sidebar is gone. You’re back to the traditional sidebar with all the Gmail folders and filters.
That’s all there is to it! Google likes to use Gmail to advertise its other productivity tools. Maybe these services are really useful to you, but you might not want to see them in Gmail all the time. Luckily, it’s easy to hide shortcuts, and you can do the same on Android, iPhone, and iPad.
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