The icon backdrop in release 6.1 has turned to an ugly shade of pink compared to the classic 5.6 icon with no backdrop:
As if the white background didn’t look bad enough, as an icon looks best if scaled the maximum size without any backdrops, the pink background made the icon plain terrible, breaking the consistency with most other apps that use white.
No other icon uses a pink background. Here’s a few to compare.
Total Commander
Or Chrome
all use a white background.
Firefox is only app I’m aware of that doesn’t use a white background but theirs still looks much better than pink:
I’m on a stock unrooted Android 12 in case that’s relevant. If there is a way to turn off the terrible pink backdrop or change it to white at the very least, I’m all ears.
It is not that I find the slight pink background the best idea K9 developer had… but when I look at my collection of apps I find plenty which do not follow the white background pattern. At least 50%.
As far as I know Android on certain versions to allow alternative icons to be shipped / selected. Maybe this would be an idea for tge devs? And it should be easy to be provided.
With the latest cooperation with Thunderbird I assume the icon may change soon anyway.
Look at stock google apps. I see white backgrounds. Looking at other apps I struggle to find such a striking example of inconsistency.
Perhaps you are confusing a regular enlarged icon without a backdrop with one that has one?
Anyway, why the former k9 mail icon became smaller and received a backdrop is beyond me. Some sort of google driven novelty in every Android release, perhaps?
My dream would be for the 5.6 series to be maintained to support OAuth for google compatibility (can’t use 2FA). Plenty of people expect a simple, low weight (5.6 was 6MB the last I checked), no frills email client with a likewise simple design (no hamburger menus, black amoled friendly backgrounds yay!).
I feel 6.1 is a step back unfortunately, usablility and design-wise but google gave us no choice.
I LIKE the pink background. A bit of whimsy in Google’s ever-increasing Sea of Blandness. And it’s easier to find. The OP calls it an “ugly” shade of pink; I’ll admit that I would have chosen a brighter shade of pink. Thank you, Cketti, for your efforts.
Pink is generally bad and isn’t getting good press unless in certain context like pr0n or female underwear. Many people commonly refer to it as girlie or g@y (casually, when not biting their tongues due to aggressive political correctness).
My point being, in addition to standing out in a bad way, it is not a colour fit to be in an icon due to the associations it invokes. Blandness or a predictable style in line with the other icons ia a no brainer. A neutral colour would be in order. Please tone it down.
