When Google thinks it knows something you might be interested in, like a middle schooler at lunch time, it has to get this information off its chest. Usually this comes in the form of a Google Now notification.

These are marked by blue icons containing a symbol that indicate what type of information you're about to read, such as a cloud for weather or a soccer ball for sports. Now these images have badges with Google's logo.

Left: Old, Right: New

Before you swipe down on the notification panel, you will just see the letter G. You know, that one.

That's all there is to the change. We suspect that the shift requires server-side activation, but just in case, here's the latest version of the Google app.