All That Sparkles Is AI

It's a familiar sight: that telltale AI “sparkle” icon that pops up across Google’s interfaces, signifying everything from photo-editing tools to advanced generative-AI features. How did this little twinkle become our symbol for Google AI? And what do users really think when they see it?

As user experience researchers at Google, we’ve spent the last year asking exactly these questions. In a series of studies on the AI sparkle, we set out to learn how successful this symbol is.

As with any new technology, there’s a rapid learning curve with AI, and the quick consolidation of AI iconography was useful in the early stages. But all this sudden sparkliness might have downsides. Ubiquity leads to a lack of specificity and can diminish an icon’s effectiveness. Here, we’ll share some of our main insights into the world of Google’s AI icons, exploring their rise, impact, and (possibly) sparkly future.

Sparkles evoke the feeling that something is clean, new, improved, or special. The association with freshness makes sense — some of the first uses of sparkles in branding were for cleaning products. While the sparkle has changed reference points, its connotation of “specialness” has remained relatively stable for a century.

Starting in the mid-2010s, Google began using a sparkle icon to represent AI in its products, establishing what would eventually become "the Google AI Sparkle." An early example was in 2016, when the Sparkle was used in the icon for the Explore feature in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets, which used AI to help users easily find documents within folders. In 2020, Google employed a different version of the AI Sparkle, this time with multiple sparkles arranged in a triangle, to signify the Photos Suggestion photo-editing tool.

It was in 2023, when generative AI took off in a major way, that Google redesigned and standardized the Sparkle across products — it was then used widely across the entire Google ecosystem, from Material Design to products like the Gemini app. The updated design was inspired by the negative space between the Google Assistant dots, signifying a new kind of help from Google. In 2024, nearly 100 different AI Sparkle icons were used across Google products, with use increasing by as much as 37% each quarter.

Given AI’s proliferation, usefulness, and centrality, we decided to embark on research to gain a better understanding of the Sparkle today.

We conducted several icon studies to understand user expectations and interpretations of the Sparkle. Across studies we had a total of 2,000 participants from eight different countries. Our sample was designed to be population representative, and we included both existing and new users. Here are three of our key takeaways.

In our first survey, we investigated how various icons functioned both inside and outside of a UI context. We compared icons with no Sparkle, a standalone Sparkle icon, and an icon that combined the Sparkle with another feature icon. Our goal was to find out how users interpret these variations.

We found that users definitely recognize that the Sparkle signifies AI features in Google products — and a single sparkle is enough to get the message across. Upon seeing the icon, one user said, “I love AI!” and another said, “Go, Star!”

For a second experiment, we partnered with Google Travel, which uses the Google AI Sparkle icon to show when a search result is AI generated. The Travel UI is very information dense, so legibility is important. Our aim was to test a new version of the Sparkle against a previous one, to find out whether users understood that the new one signifies both AI and Google.

What we learned: Users recognized that the Sparkle signifies Google AI, but they didn’t have a consistent definition of what AI meant. For instance, they didn’t have a sense of whether the material was produced by traditional machine learning (analyzing data to make predictions) or generative AI (using data to create new content). What they cared about overall was whether they could trust the information — and understand that AI was involved — to help them make informed decisions.

In collaboration with a UX team focused on voice interaction, we then looked at microphone icons used across Google products. We wanted to find out whether these icons matched what users expected from speech interactions, whether or not the speech interactions were AI-driven, such as dictation versus recording.

A notable discovery was that an icon that combined a mic and a Sparkle performed better at signaling an AI interaction than a microphone icon on its own, because the combination clarified the interaction within the context of our icon set. This study reinforced our broader finding that UI context is important for user comprehension and expectations. Icon placement, additional text, labels, and the overall purpose of the app all matter.

From our research, we know that the Sparkle icon successfully signals AI in Google products, serving as a helpful visual cue for users. And we know that context matters: Icons are always understood best within the UI and in relation to the task users are aiming to accomplish. In the right context, the icon's meaning is clear. However, the AI Sparkle icon doesn’t always convey granular meaning. Users don't always know what kind of AI they're interacting with in a Google product (ML, LLM, image generator, etc.) or the precise action they'll receive — whether it's newly generated text, AI-powered analysis, or image editing suggestions.

As AI continues to evolve and power more Google features, these distinctions may become increasingly important for users and regulators alike. We hope future studies will explore how to effectively signal the specific AI being used in a given context. We're also interested in understanding how Google's Sparkle icon influences product adoption.

AI is no longer a future prospect, but an integral part of the Google experience. Google’s designers are committed to staying ahead of this rapidly evolving landscape, continuously adapting our approach to meet the changing needs of our users and ensuring that our visual language remains clear, helpful, and relevant. By staying informed about current user needs, we’ll be ready to spark the next change.

Further reading
Google’s People + AI (PAIR) Guidebook
Kate Kaplan, The Proliferation and Problem of the ✨ Sparkles ✨ Icon
Rishi Shah, The Unstoppable Rise of Spark ✨, as Ai’s Iconic Symbol
Jazper Lu, How the Sparkles Emoji Became the Symbol of Our AI Future
Aurora Harley, Icon Usability

Special Thanks
Our studies were conducted in partnership with different Google teams, including Brand Studio, Speech UX, and Travel, who all provided assets we could use for testing. Thanks also to the Icons team on Google Fonts.

Illustrations by Arthur Ribeiro Vergani