James Pero

Design

Android just got a jaw-dropping new redesign

Google is pretty much flipping Android UI on its head.

The release of Android 12 is promising to usher in a lot of changes, and while we’ll find out more details as we dig into the beta released on Tuesday, at least one major shift is already abundantly clear — the design.

In a major redesign that Google is calling “Material You,” Android users (and users of a few other Google platforms) will soon be able to customize a heck of a lot more about how Android’s UI looks and operates. For instance...

Colors

So. Many. Pretty. Colors.

Widgets

Finally some spiffy looking widgets.

Accessibility

Users can granularly adjust things like contrast, text size, and line width.

One of the most interesting aspects of Google’s augmented UI personalization is the ability to automatically match interface colors to your wallpaper. That means design elements like notification colors and widgets will adapt their color depending on the wallpaper you’ve personally selected.

For instance, using this plant might result in a green color scheme.

“Users customize their desktops in the physical and digital worlds with images that are personal and provide comfort and joy. We built upon this insight to generate unique Material palettes for everyone, derived from a personal signal — wallpaper — that can be applied to their entire experience.”

Google

Material You will extend beyond just Android, too. Google said that it will eventually transfer over to Chrome OS, wearables, and other Google products. For now, however, it will debut for all users on the Google Pixel this fall and in a preview for developers in Android 12 starting this week.

Until then, you can just sit back and ogle all these pretty new colors.

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