Over the past couple of years, those of us who pay close attention to mobile technology have watched a whole new design paradigm emerge before our all-too-wet eyes.
And you to know I must be talking about something important here because I’m using big words like “paradigm” and, um, “eyeballs.”
The topic in question is a basic one for Android – especially for those using a Google’s Pixel phonewhere the core Android software exists in its purest form.
It’s a little thing called “Material You,” and having lived with the Pixel for a whole year Android 12 and now the beginning Android 13I’m here to tell you that it’s one of the most transformative and underappreciated advances we’ve seen in modern technology—even if it seems like hardly anyone is giving it credit.
Material You, if you’re not familiar, is a new design standard that Google introduced in Android 12 in 2021 and then fleshed out in this year’s Android 13 update. It’s easy to dismiss this as just another change to Android’s on-screen appearance — some added shadows here, some extra rounded elements there, and other such arbitrary adjustments.
However, if you do, you risk missing out on not only one of the smartest and most significant Android improvements of all time, but also one of the coolest and most significant design innovations. any form of technology in recent times.
Mark my words: if Apple had shipped such a system with its latest iPhone, we’d have heard endless oohs, aahs, and overuse of adjectives like “game-changing” and “adorable.” But Google is much smaller shameless is effective at marketing its progress, and thus this (ahem) magical and game-changing innovation remains largely unnoticed.
So let me take a moment to wax poetic about how impressive Material You is on Android and why it truly deserves your rapturous attention.
Magic Material You on Android
A key part of Android 12 and above Material You settings is what can best be described as a dynamic theming engine. That’s a fancy way of saying that the software can pull additional colors from whatever wallpaper you’re using on your home screen at any given time, and then create a custom system-wide palette that applies to your entire Android.
Every time you change your wallpaper, bam: Android automatically adjusts it whole interface to match. This means that everything from the color of icons on the home screen to the color of the on-screen keyboard and even the color of accents in all kinds of programs changes on the fly, dynamically — without any thought or effort on your part.
It’s not a productivity a feature in itself, and it certainly has no practical function. But let’s not kid ourselves: what our technology looks like matters. And the feeling that you have a completely new and fresh personalized phone every day is a powerful advantage that greatly increases the pleasure of using the device and gives more nice performance experience.
And – if I may be so bold as to borrow a favorite word from a company currently causing a stir over the glowing black strip down the middle of its latest device’s viewing surface – it really feels magical in a way that extends to almost every corner of your phone journey.
For example, here’s my Pixel 6 home screen with a green-themed wallpaper:
the youngestSee how the icons and even the widgets—both the world time clock widget at the top of the home screen and the search bar widget built into the Pixel Launcher—have matching colors?
The same color appears everywhere, from my phone’s quick settings to its on-screen keyboard:
the youngestCompatible apps like Gmail and Google Drive also pick up on this and change their entire main view accordingly:
the youngest…as well as system-level tools like the Android Calculator app and even something as simple as Google contacts on Android interface:
the youngestAnd the second time I switch to another wallpaper, poof: the whole system adapts to itself.
the youngestIf I really want to get fancy, I can even go into the system’s Wallpaper tool to override the automatic color matching and create my own look on demand with a tap of my suspiciously sticky finger:
the youngestAnd again, in the blink of an eye, the entire system interface takes on a whole new look to match – with a degree of reach that serves as a constant source of delight and wonder.
the youngestMaybe it’s one of those things that you have to live with for a while to fully appreciate, but having this level of ever-evolving intelligent personalization in your pocket is truly awe-inspiring. And you definitely don’t need to be a power user to appreciate it.
If only Google could sell the system in a way that made ordinary phone owners understand what it was capable of – sell it the way Apple would (and maybe eventually will be), in other words — well, people buying phones can start to see just how special Android has become, and how powerful the presence of advanced personalization potential can be.
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https://www.computerworld.com/article/3674134/android-design-revolution.html#tk.rss_all
