At Google’s yearly developer event, I/O, Google provided a peek at the future of its design language, “Material You.”
But what exactly is Material You?
Material You is the latest update to Material Design, the design language used by Google’s apps and third-party developers to provide consistent experience on Android devices. Designers across Google came together asking themselves, “What if form did not just follow function, but also followed feeling?” While Material Design provides consistency, Material You will allow users to customize the colors, shapes and other elements in their phone’s software. Google shows it believes the future of the interface should be shaped by its users.
The Future of Android Design and Accessibility
Material You will automatically create a color palette based on the home screen photo, which will be used to theme the entire operating system and any apps that use it. For example, if the photo has lots of blue, apps like Calendar or Calculator will adjust the way they look to use blue highlights.
The auto-generated color palette is designed to support light and dark themes, ensuring that regardless of color choice, text and elements are legible in light or dark mode. Material You will also allow customization to elements such as buttons, border types and more. It’ll allow the user to feel that their phone is theirs rather than the same as any other phone. It is designed to help make beautiful theming easy for anyone, applying it across an entire device. With this customization, it will be easy for the operating system and apps to adapt to different screen sizes and types.
Material You was built with accessibility in mind. Google recognizes that some users have ongoing accessibility needs or have situational needs that require UIs to adapt. Users can control size, contrast and more to tailor an accessible UI.
Material You will let your phone reflect your personality and bring back fun into the equation. It will shape Android going forward.
Material You will debut on Google Pixel (Android 12) this fall.