Google has lifted the lid on Android 16, the latest version due to be released to phones later this year, revealing a bigger visual redesign than expected. The big question is whether or not your Android phone will ever get it.
Dubbed ‘Material 3 Expressive’, the new look for Android 16 builds on the design language of Android 12, which came out in 2021 and overhauled the look and feel of Android, particularly on Google’s own Pixel phones, where the changes are applied directly.
This year, this is set to include big bold fonts, more customisation and colour theme options, new components and typography, changes to animations and widgets. Lots of widgets.
“Personalization is core to Android, and Material 3 Expressive — one of our biggest updates in years — is all about making your device feel unique to you,” Google said. “Material 3 Expressive gives you new ways to show your style and personality, delivers smooth interactions and surfaces glanceable, helpful information.”
Google says a lot of this is based around “more natural, springy animations” across Android in things like notifications, with haptic feedback under your thumbs in new places.
“You get similar moments like this across your device, like when you’re dismissing an app in your recent apps screen, fidgeting with the volume slider or flinging down the shade,” Google said “We even subtly blur the shade background to provide a sense of depth, so the motion feels lightweight and you’re able to stay aware of the apps you’re using in the background.”
Just like every year, companies such as Samsung, OnePlus and Honor can all take and use Android 16 along with all its new features but they do not have to implement Google’s design changes, and history shows us that they often don’t.
Though Android 12 gave Google Pixel phones a distinct minimalist look that continues to today, Samsung’s One UI is much more complex and customisable, and does not look remotely like Google’s Pixel UI (well, to us anyway).
It means that if you like the look of Android 16 the way Google does it, you probably need to have a Pixel.
Samsung and other brands also took Google’s colour theming fairly half heartedly, and kept on course to make Android look and feel more like the iPhone and iOS. OnePlus and Xiaomi are particularly into this, from icon shape to colour choice to settings menu layouts.
Then again, Google is introducing Live Updates with Android 16, which is basically the same as Apple’s equivalent where you can view the status of your Uber or Deliveroo arriving in a widget on the lock screen.
You’ll also be able to more granularly customise and edit the quick settings panel on Android, another thing you’re able to do on Apple’s latest iOS 18, in what it calls Control Centre.
iOS and Android usually do this, circling each other’s various features and perks before copying them and ending up with very similar looks. That said, the first images of Google’s look for the Pixel is decidedly un-Apple.
Google also showed off some small visual tweaks to WearOS, its smartwatch software, but again, these were all shown on a Pixel Watch and may not be changes that end up being seen on other Android wearables.