Android developers and Material You is going to be a love-hate affair once the Android 12 android starts hitting the global users. We say this because the latest Material You color system and interactions are coming to more apps.
The latest update also came in at Google’s Android Developer Summit. The company announced that Material You is available in Jetpack Compose, so app designers can more easily adapt the look in their own products.
Android developers and Material You
Google says it’s planning on accessibility updates. That will tie into the dynamic color and adaptive layouts. Other guidance and system adjustments will help apps work with new form factors like foldable phones.
In 12L the company has refined the UI on large screens. Across notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, home screen, and more. For example, on screens above 600dp, the notification shade, lock screen, and other system surfaces use a new two-column layout to take advantage of the screen area. System apps are also optimized.
According to Google, it will include dynamic guidelines that will help apps respond and adjust algorithmically to a user’s wallpaper choice. As well as tips on how to maintain a third-party app’s individual brand expression while adapting.
Another element developers will need to learn about are the design tokens. That “represent design system styles as data” so they can change as the system changes. Developers will be able to see how their apps will look in different circumstances using the Material Theme Builder.
Which is available as a Figma plugin and on the web starting today. Beyond just how apps look, Google says that new features for its Jetpack libraries will help developers manage Android 12’s background restrictions. And they will be able to measure performance and handle backward compatibility aswell.