Android Is Getting Weird Again as iOS Gets More Boring

The champion connection to picture Google’s self-leaked Android UI is “funky.” According to a now-removed blog post, Android is getting a ocular refresh successful the signifier of a “Material 3 Expressive” plan language, a bold, a small brash, and precise in-your-face plan with its unusual shapes and monolithic fonts. Love it oregon hatred it, astatine the precise slightest we whitethorn yet acquisition a stint wherever Google and Apple’s smartphone interfaces aren’t c copies of each other.

The folks astatine 9to5Google archetypal spotted a blog station from Google published up of its yearly Google I/O league detailing the caller Material 3 Expressive redesign. The Wayback Machine inactive has the substance and header video, but the blog managed to drawback shots of this caller UI earlier Google pulled it down. Google describes this look arsenic “the most-researched update to Google’s plan system, ever” and further claims it volition marque it up to 4 times faster to spot cardinal UI elements.

You tin beryllium the justice of whether larger bubbles with bold substance marque it easier to navigate your phone. Otherwise, Google implies this redesign crossed the Android idiosyncratic acquisition is meant to “connect with radical connected an affectional level.” That includes utilizing assorted colors and shapes to item important buttons oregon UI elements, alternatively than the “boring” lists you’ve travel to expect from astir baseline Android apps. “Cool” is the sanction of the crippled here. Google adjacent included charts that showed that Material 3 Expressive enhanced the “coolness” of an app.

Those “cool” features see a pill-shaped “floating toolbar” that you tin find astatine the bottommost of respective apps. Google claimed its probe recovered that stressing size and opposition made the UI easier to usage for astir people, particularly younger folk. Google adjacent threw shadiness astatine Apple: “We recovered that well-applied expressive plan is powerfully preferred by radical of each ages implicit non-expressive plan that followed the iOS Human Interface Guidelines.”

Speaking of iOS, Apple is reportedly moving successful the other absorption of Google with its upcoming iOS 19. Recent reports from reliable leakers astatine Bloomberg suggest Apple is trying to unify its interfaces crossed its iPhone, iPad, and Mac products. This would see adding circular, bubble-shaped app icons—much similar the look of the Vision Pro’s “spatial” interface. We’re inactive waiting to spot if Apple volition yet unveil much of its long-promised Apple Intelligence features. The institution reportedly went done a major restructuring period aft interior tests proved the promised AI-ified Siri wasn’t up to snuff.

I can’t accidental I similar the caller Android plan language. Those screenshots displayed connected the now-deleted Google blog—especially the representation for “Your Mix”—look much similar poster advertisements than a cleanable UI wherever I tin really prime what I want. The clock, payments, and wallet apps look a small easier to parse, but that’s due to the fact that they request to show the astir important information—the clip and your relationship balance—front and center. The leaked screenshots amusement disconnected the accepted keyboard successful Gmail compared to a redesigned interface with the “send” fastener beforehand and center, though it takes up astir fractional the phone’s screen.

There are different signs Google volition transcript Apple successful different ways. Android Authority precocious reported that there’s codification successful Google’s upcoming Android 16 for resizable and modular Quick Setting tiles, precise overmuch similar what Apple added to iOS 18’s modular Control Center. Now that everybody has a smartphone and the bundle has matured, it’s present mean to expect Android volition transcript iOS, and that Apple volition instrumentality the favour successful benignant during each year’s OS update cycle. But Android is going all-in connected aesthetics with its upcoming release. Whether oregon not that really makes it much usable is different substance entirely.