Android’s new design language appears to be like extraordinarily… Gen Z.
That a lot is apparent from the idea pictures in the leaked weblog submit that surfaced in the present day (revealed by Google, because it tends to do). Whereas the theme is customizable, Google highlighted pink, purple, and coral all through the interface. It’s a decidedly youthful, bubblier, and extra enjoyable design that screams “take a look at all this contemporary paint!” and fewer “select from certainly one of these six standard shades of blue.” Google’s weblog additionally confirms the push towards youth enchantment. Tremendous; freshening up the interface each now and again is an efficient and vital pursuit. Other than the inherent cringe issue when a bunch of designers tries to quantify youth enchantment in bar graphs labeled “Coolness attributes,” I can’t shake the sensation that none of this issues a lot in opposition to Android’s greatest hurdle in addressing the youthful demographic: the iPhone.
Android is the most well-liked cellular working system on the planet. However right here within the US, Apple owns a stable majority of all telephones offered. The numbers skew much more closely towards iOS if you take a look at youthful demographics. A 2025 survey from funding financial institution Piper Sandler reviews that 88 p.c of youngsters polled personal an iPhone. A 2023 article in The Wall Avenue Journal discovered that children who dared to deliver an Android telephone to high school confronted teasing for utilizing what’s seen as a telephone for previous folks. Google, it appears, want to do one thing about that.
The screenshots from the weblog submit, which had been saved by 9to5Google, give us a peek at what Google’s try to enchantment to the youth appears to be like like. It builds on Materials You, the interface that Google launched with Android 12, with a concentrate on customizability. It added the power to alter the system-wide coloration palette primarily based in your wallpaper, a characteristic that Apple roughly copied in iOS 18 with an choice to tint homescreen icons. Materials Three pushes even additional, mixing in daring fonts, greater icons, and vibrant colours.
The leaked weblog submit calls Materials Three its “most-researched replace to Google’s design system, ever.” Google’s leaked submit says it performed 46 research testing its new designs, with over 18,000 contributors. “Whereas there was a internet constructive indication throughout all age teams, youthful research contributors had essentially the most enthusiastic choice for M3 Expressive, and likewise ranking the designs as excessive in Visible Attraction and Intention to Use,” the submit claimed.
It’s not all in regards to the youth. It additionally says, “…with Expressive variations, we’re seeing a elimination of age results in fixation occasions, serving to 45+ 12 months previous customers carry out on par with their youthful counterparts.” Let’s simply do not forget that anybody who’s 45 has most likely owned a smartphone longer than the “youthful counterparts” have been alive, and I believe they had been discovering the e-mail ship button simply positive, however I recognize the consideration.
Google’s researchers had contributors charge the designs for sure attributes, together with these “Coolness Attributes” like “Stand Aside” and “Fascinating.” Nice! What the hell does that imply?
Apparently, Google thinks it’s an indicator that folks would possibly really be prepared to change to Android primarily based on these designs. “We’ve additionally seen that this coolness isn’t only a self-importance metric, however a constructive driver of behavioral intent, which means customers usually tend to need to change to a product with this design.”
There’s solely a lot Google can do. No quantity of vibrant coloration therapies and “fascinating” icons will change the truth that an Android proprietor continues to be the inexperienced bubble within the group chat.
Apple is aware of that locking folks into iMessage is a big think about retaining them within the ecosystem, significantly with the telephones folks give their children. RCS has made cross-platform chats rather more bearable, however we’re nonetheless not fairly at characteristic parity — and people bubbles are nonetheless inexperienced.
Truthfully, I don’t hate Materials Three, and leaning right into a design that appears so completely different from iOS strikes me as a greater concept than making an iOS knockoff. However, at the least within the US market, a call by Apple to open iMessage and FaceTime would do extra to spice up Android gross sales than something Google’s designers can dream up.
Is that truthful? In no way, and regulators are attempting to do one thing about it. The UI glow-up doesn’t harm, however I don’t assume this can be a state of affairs Google can design itself out of.