With iOS 26’s big Liquid Glass revamp, Apple heavily leaned into background blur throughout the UI. Samsung and other Android makers also followed suit, baking similar blur effects into their Android skins. Now, it looks like Google is ready to jump on the bandwagon as well with Android 17 this year.
The 9to5Google team has seen some screenshots of an internal Android 17 build that show Google further building on Android’s Material 3 Expressive redesign from 2025 by introducing blur. It will supposedly replace the solid dark and light backgrounds with a translucent effect, enabling you to see what lies beneath menus, notifications, and system elements.
For example, the pill-shaped volume bar in Android 17 will reportedly feature a translucent panel. This will allow you to see the background content, like the wallpaper and app icons on the home screen. The blur will supposedly feature a slight Dynamic Color tint for a cohesive look.
A similar blur effect will purportedly also extend to the power menu and other UI elements.
If anything, the blur effect across the system UI should be similar to what’s already visible in the notification and Quick Settings panel in Android 16. And compared to Apple’s Liquid Glass design, Google’s blur effect will apparently be more subtle.
The report also makes it clear that Android 17’s visual tweaks, including the added blur, won’t be anywhere near as dramatic as last year’s Material 3 Expressive redesign. Instead, Google seems to be building on what it already introduced.
Google may also end up updating its apps to add a blur effect.
Blur may strain older Pixels
The added blur effect may hog more resources, which could negatively impact performance on older Pixels. The overall impact will depend on the intensity of the translucent effect and how much Google optimizes it. Hopefully, the “Reduce blur effects” accessibility option will turn off the added blur effect in Android 17 altogether.
The blur effect is not a part of Android’s latest Canary build. Google may be keeping it under wraps for Android 17, whose first Developer Preview build could go live in February.
