Tag: Material You

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Mobile Syrup

Chrome redesign for large-screen Android devices in the works

Android tablet and foldable users are in for a visual refresh if they use Google Chrome. Experimental flags in the latest stable build include interface tweaks that can be enabled with some fiddling, as uncovered by Android Police.

It looks like Google is working on incorporating elements of its Material You design language into its mobile browser. When enabled, the strip of tabs at the top becomes visually separated from the address bar. The “new tab” button, represented by a plus sign, is now filled in with rounded padding as well.

To top it off, the updated interface now appears to follow Google’s custom accent colour system. First introduced in Android 12, the system pulls from a colour palette that dynamically adjusts based on the wallpaper in use.

These changes aren’t groundbreaking by any means, but they do a good job of freshening up the look of the browser. With the flags enabled, everything looks an extra bit polished compared to before.

It is unknown when Google plans on pushing out these changes to the stable build of Chrome for Android. The company is currently also working on a visual refresh of the desktop version of its web browser.

Source: Android Police Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google Chrome is testing Material You colour theming

Chrome is the latest product from Google to adopt the company’s trendy ‘Material You’ theming engine. However, since the design rules for Material You are half-baked, I can foresee some issues arising with this in the future.

To test out the new feature, you need to get Google’s beta browser, Chrome Canary. This browser is essentially the same as standard Chrome, but it gets new features first for beta testing. You also need to ensure you’re on Canary version 110 or newer.

From there, you need to input chrome://flags/ into your search bar to get into the secret Google settings panel. Once it loads, search for ‘Customize Chrome Color Extraction’ and enable it.

The first major limitation of this browser extension is that it takes its colour choice from the wallpaper you set on your new page screen on Chrome. I’d have rather it take the colour from the wallpaper on my computer, similar to how it works on Android phones. It also only seems to work with stock Google wallpapers. Any custom uploads don’t seem to change colours in my testing.

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This is where things get a little convoluted since there are no well-defined rules for how Material You should work. I was hoping that Google would attach the Material You-themed colours from your phone to the rest of your Google products. Ideally, this would establish a colour profile for each member of your family, and when they interacted with things like Google TVs and smart displays, those devices would adopt that colour to unify and personalize that person’s software and hardware.

However, Google seems to be taking more of a nearsighted approach to implementing the feature. I can see this as being strange for people running Chrome OS in the near future if Material You gets rolled out there with more consistency. Are we expected to have both Chrome and Chrome OS adopt different colours based on separate aspects of the ecosystem?

As Google builds towards the Pixel ecosystem with the launch of the Pixel Watch and Buds, the company needs to spend more time thinking about how to connect all of its devices, not how to fracture them.

Via: Android Police 

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s ‘Material You’ design language could come to Chrome OS

Google’s new design language known as ‘Material You’ appears to be coming to Chrome OS.

‘Material You’ will likely make its way to Chome OS following its introduction alongside Android 12 back in 2021. The change, which was first spotted in a Chromium Gerrit by 9to5Google, notes a flag that says, “When enabled, runs ChromeOS in Material Next MVP mode.”

The codename “Material Next MVP” seems to be an internal Google reference to ‘Material You.’ Further, ‘MVP’ is the term used by developers for “minimum viable product.”

‘Material You’ will likely enable anyone using Chrome OS to customize the colour schemes used in app wallpapers.

In addition, colour is referenced in the discussion on the Chromium Gerrit, describing options regarding how hues can be changed. However, it looks like the wallpaper will not determine the colours and that instead, you’ll select them through a mixer.

As always, this isn’t confirmation Google will add ‘Material You’ to Chrome OS, though it looks that’s likely the case.

Image credit: Google

Sources: Chromium Gerrit Via: 9to5Google, Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s shows off Material You Google News and Calendar widgets

Google has announced that its new Android 12 widgets have been developed with ‘Material You’ in mind. While the tech giant’s blog post specifically mentions a new Google Fi widget (Fi isn’t available in Canada), there are several other new widgets designs.

For example, there’s a new Calendar schedule and a new Google News widget. The redesigned Calendar widget adopts a more modern look with the date in the top left corner and the addition of a button in the top-right corner.

The News widget, on the other hand, has been redesigned with a large pill up top, with the publication and corresponding headline sitting below. Additionally, the new Gmail widget features a large ‘new email’ button in the top-right corner.

What’s cool is that some of Google’s renders of the updated widgets show Android 12L running on a tablet. The tech giant recently announced Android 12L, a new version of its mobile OS designed for larger screens, including tablets, foldables and devices that run Chrome OS.

You can learn more about it, Android 12L here.

Source: Google Store

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Mobile Syrup

Here are all the apps with ‘Material You’ design so far

Google seems to be on the verge of releasing Android 12 with its new colour-shifting design.

To help prepare for the launch, we rounded up all of the apps with Material You updates or widgets so far. We should note that these updates are predominantly on Pixel phones, but I’ve noticed a few updates on my OnePlus 9 Pro.

I’ll make sure to mention which apps have rolled out to us so far, and will update the list as more apps roll out to myself and other MobileSyrup staffers. The last time Google did a significant design change, it took a while for all apps to update to support it. Leading into Android 12, it looks like the tech giant is better prepared, but I’d still expect a bit of a delay for all of the apps to catch up with the colour-changing look once the full release of Android 12 drops this fall.

I used a Pixel 4a 5G for most of my testing — it’s running the latest Android 12 beta.

Gboard

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

Of course, the first app that got updated was the Google keyboard app, Gboard. The app is functionally the same as it was in Android 11, but the buttons are a little more rounded, and it adopts an accent colour based on your wallpaper. I have this app on my Pixel 4a 5G.

Phone

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

The Phone app has been updated, and the floating action buttons (FAB) are square this time around. They also adopt an accent colour from your phone. This update is live on my OnePlus 9 Pro, but the colours don’t change. Even some of the animations, like the empty voicemail screen, take on your accent colour, and it looks really great on the Pixel 4a 5G.

Calculator

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

The calculator is also updated, and it looks awesome with a new round button design and bright ever-changing colours. This app is on my Pixel 4a 5G.

Camera

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

The camera app has been updated slightly to take on the accent colours from your wallpaper. I have this update on my Pixel 4a 5G.

Gmail

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

The Gmail update, like a lot of these redesigns, is quite subtle. The background colour doesn’t change, but the accent colours do, and the FAB is square this time around to match the other apps. This update is already live on my Pixel 4a 5G and my OnePlus 9 Pro. On the OnePlus (Android 11), the accent colour is locked to blue.

Google

This app gets a little more colour, and the background changes slightly to match your colour scheme, but it’s not overly noticeable. This update hasn’t rolled out to me yet.

Keep Notes

The Keep update is similar to the Google one, with a subtle background colour and brighter accent colours. The one change worth mentioning is that the colourful notes look a little muted compared to how saturated they were before. I think it’s an improvement, as it matches the muted accent colours better. This update hasn’t rolled out to us yet.

Google Meet

Google Meet doesn’t have a lot going on, other than some subtle changes to accent colours. I don’t have this update yet.

Drive

Google Drive has gotten a little more of an update with a slightly reworked bottom bar that now hosts a square action button. All the accent colours also match your wallpaper. This app hasn’t rolled out to us yet.

Docs

Within Docs, the accent colours and toolbars are also taken over by the prominent background colour. Don’t worry though, the workspace areas still have white or black backgrounds. This update is the same across the Google Work suite, so mobile Sheets and Slide users can expect the same changes. I don’t have this update yet.

Calendar

Google Cal users will get an update too, but it won’t look that different since all the existing calendar accent colours will still be there.

Clock

The Clock app has been updated, and it looks pretty sharp. That being said, it’s got a huge ‘Plus’ button at the bottom of the screen. At first I found it a little weird, but it’s since grown on me and makes a lot of sense in the ‘Stopwatch’ section of the app. This update has rolled out to me.

Files

Android 11 (Pixel 3 XL) on left – Android 12 (Pixel 4a 5G) on right

The Files app takes on some colour across the bottom bar and in other accent places. However, it has this strange design feature where the top bar is white until you scroll down, and then it takes on an accent colour. This colour doesn’t extend to the notification bar at the top of the screen, so for me, it looks like a weird red bar. This update has rolled out to me.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google shows off Material You redesign heading to Calendar, Drive and more

Google showed off Material You updates headed to several Workspace apps, including Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Gmail, Sheets and Slides.

To start, Google confirmed that Gmail would get its Material You redesign with version 2021.08.24 and newer on devices running Android 12 and up (which, right now, should just be phones in the beta program).

Along with confirming which Gmail version would see the update, Google showed off the Material You look for other apps. The search giant showed off three screenshots for its apps, with the first being the current design, followed by the Material You design and then Material You with Dynamic colour.

First up, Google calendar is getting a very slight redesign that basically tweaks the look of the header bar and floating action button (FAB) in the bottom-right corner. Google Meet is getting a similarly basic change that really only impacts the shape and colour of buttons. The Google Cal changes will start rolling out on September 20th, while Meet changes will start rolling out on the 19th.

Google Drive and the Slides, Sheets and Docs apps are getting slightly more significant updates. Drive will see the search bar, navigation bar and FAB changed over, while the other three will apply Dynamic Colours to practically everything but the document itself. Google notes that Material You will expand existing accessibility support by automatically adjusting contrast, size and line width based on user preferences. Pre-existing colour schemes, such as colour-coded file types, won’t change.

The Google Drive changes started rolling out on September 9th, while Docs, Sheets and Slides started rolling out on the 1st. However, roll-outs for all these changes could take up to 15 days before they show up on people’s devices.

Source: Google Via: 9to5Google