Bento menu
A three-by-three grid of squares or dots is an app launcher, sometimes called a bento menu: it opens a panel of the company’s other apps.
How to read it
On Google’s sites the grid sits at the top right, to the left of your profile button, and opens a panel of app icons, according to the Australian eSafety Commissioner’s Be Connected lessons, which call it the app grid icon. Manhattan College’s IT blog reported the change in November 2013: Google’s apps moved from a toolbar at the top left into a grid at the top right, opened by clicking “the 9 small boxes”. Microsoft calls its own version the app launcher; on Microsoft 365 web pages it is in the upper-left corner and switches between apps such as Word, Excel and OneDrive. Google’s Material icon set names the grid icon apps.
Also searched as: app launcher icon, bento menu, grid icon, nine dots icon.
Where the name comes from
“Bento” is a nickname, after the Japanese bento box. The linguist Arnold Zwicky wrote in 2018 about a cartoon by Michael Babich, made for the UX/UI Design community on Google+, that likens menu icons to foods, a bento box among them; Zwicky added that commenters on Facebook argued it should be called a waffle instead.
Look-alikes
The Hamburger menu (☰) (three lines) opens a site’s or app’s own navigation; the grid opens a list of other apps.
Read next
- Next in Interface iconsShare iconThree dots joined by two lines are the share icon: it opens the ways to send a page, photo or file to someone else. Apple devices use a different share icon, a square with an arrow pointing up out of it.
- The same shape in Flowchart symbolsTerminal (start and end)The start or the end of a flowchart. The terminal is a flat oval, a rectangle with fully rounded ends, with a word such as Start or End inside.
More interface icons
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Using Google apps (Be Connected), Be Connected topic library, eSafety Commissioner, Australian Government
- Google Apps New Launcher, Richard Musal, 4 November 2013, Manhattan College ITS Blog
- Get started with my Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Support, Microsoft
- Material Icons codepoints (MaterialIcons-Regular.codepoints), Google Material Design icons, font/MaterialIcons-Regular.codepoints, Google (material-design-icons repository on GitHub), apps
- Know Your Menu, Arnold Zwicky, 1 April 2018, Arnold Zwicky’s Blog
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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