Google introduced Material 3 Expressive — a new design for the Android 16 operating system
At The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google announced a redesign for Android 16, which will be released later this year. The new style is called Material 3 Expressive and, according to the company, will add more emotion, flexibility, and depth to the visual design of the system.
A key focus for Google is on lively, "squeezable" animations . For example, when a user dismisses a notification, the device will provide haptic feedback. Similar microinteractions have been added to actions with volume sliders, brightness, closing apps, and more.
One of the visual updates is the blurring of the background in the quick settings, notification and recent apps panels. There are also changes to the typography, interface components and color theme - it has become even more dynamic. At the same time, Google emphasizes that all these updates will not affect the speed of the system or the battery life of devices.
For Pixel smartphones, the interface has undergone noticeable changes from the lock screen. For example, if there are new notifications, the date, day of the week, and weather are now displayed to the right of the clock, and otherwise - just below it.
In addition, Android 16 will receive Live Updates - interactive notifications from delivery, taxi or navigation services that will appear directly on the lock screen or on the always-on display (AOD). When unlocking the smartphone, you can click on a special "pill" near the clock to expand this notification in full.
The quick settings panel will also be updated: tiles will become scalable, which will allow you to place more functions. Active tiles now look like rounded rectangles, and the volume and brightness sliders have a blocky design with a large slider.
The Material 3 Expressive update will arrive later in 2025 with the release of Android 16 , initially on Pixel. Later, the new style will also start appearing in Google apps — notably in the updated Google Keep and Gemini widgets.