Google’s coveted Material 3 Expressive redesign has made its way to several of the tech giant’s native apps. In most cases, it’s turning heads for positive reasons, but not in all cases.
Since the design language started rolling out, it has made its way to apps like Google Chrome, Files by Google, Gmail, the Google app, Google Keep, Maps, Messages, Photos, and countless others. The tech giant’s staple Clock app, too, received a mild refresh back in June, though the redesign’s full scope only revealed itself last week.
Google’s broader Clock app redesign began rolling out last week, and, well, for some users, it just hasn’t hit the mark (via Android Authority). Several users have reported the app being unstable in general, with the core issue being a jittery UI post redesign.
The World Clock view, for reference, constantly gets re-scaled, causing the screen’s lower UI to shift all over the place, as highlighted by user krokodil2000 on Reddit. Similarly, the app’s font size appears all over the place too, with the most comical redesign fail being the way the word ‘Stopwatch’ appears for some users.
Although this isn’t really a problem if you’re using the default font size, for those using bigger text, the word Stopwatch is split, with ‘Stopwatc’ appearing in one line, and the letter ‘h’ sitting below in a separate line, as seen below.
A fix is on the way
Aside from the wonky bottom bar, the Stopwatch itself is jittery, with the counter moving erratically from left to right when activated. Said changes don’t necessarily break the app, but they do sour the user experience and make the app feel unpolished. For example, the split ‘Stopwatc-h’ can be fixed by opting for a smaller font size, but this forces the user to compromise their entire Android experience just to make sure a single app displays correctly.
Thankfully, Google seems to be aware of issues plaguing the Clock app, and is working on a fix. In a Reddit post reply, Google’s Pixel Community rep said:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our team is aware of the issue and has already identified the root cause. We are currently working on a solution, which is scheduled to be rolled out soon.
