Summary
- Google is working on a new design update for Material Design 3, claimed to be more expressive.
- Code evidence hints at a collection of minor theming changes ahead.
- Multiple such changes expected at the I/O 2025 expo in May.
Google caused quite a stir four years ago at its annual developer conclave called I/O, where it unveiled Material You design for Android 12. Although apps and system elements took a year to adapt, this update introduced dynamic theming. Now, Google I/O 2025 looms over the horizon again, and the Android libraries associated with theming components are already showing signs of major upcoming changes that Google hopes will make apps more “expressive.”
Evolution is the only constant with Android UI design and we have seen that in the past four years Material Design has been around. It has received three revisions, with the latest simply named Material Design 3, or MD3 for short. Now, apex Android researcher Mishaal Rahman posted on Android Authority to share that there’s sufficient code evidence suggesting a new MD version is inbound, internally known as Material Design 3 Expressive.
Relevant code commits were spotted in the AOSP Gerrit under the title “DO NOT SUBMIT I/O 2025 Expressive talk code demos.” Although this title was revised after Rahman reached out for a comment and Google declined. The patch description still contains “io_talk” in it. Another reference to Material Design 3 Expressive was on the Material Components Android library hosted on Github for easy access to developers. Confirming the intention of this new theme name, a Google spokesperson said:
“Material is experimenting with bringing developers ways to make their apps more engaging by introducing more expressive features. Stay tuned for more updates and guidance!”
An incremental update with minor changes at best
Ambiguity remains
Google’s comment makes it clear the company doesn’t want to reveal its cards ahead of I/O. However, the shared nomenclature with Material Design from 2021 along with the same version number (three) suggests this will just be a minor tweak to the design language, or a collection of multiple tiny changes that collectively qualify as a major update.
Rahman said Google might have given us a look at the groundwork for Expressive design in the months prior. For instance, the Android Settings app UI is internally tagged as Expressive, and it features toggles with an X or checkmark in the handle. Items are grouped differently and Google uses more cards as separators between them. Another change in Gboard’s AI meme generator was the progress bar that looked like none others we had seen before.
That said, the official list of differences is far from thorough. On the flipside, the wait for it won’t be too long since Google I/O is set to commence on May 20. As for the everyday user, it might be months before these expressive elements are merged with app code, just a re-run of support for Material Design icons. Don’t get your hopes up tying this change to the upcoming Android 16 release either.
Related
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