Imagine what ‘Materials Next’ can provide for Google’s applications

With the first Android 12 developer preview, a massive redesign of the Settings app was discovered, indicating a refurbishment of Google’s material design. Let’s take a closer look at what some of Google’s other Android apps might look like with these next generation material design guidelines.

Based on alleged Google design models that leaked before Android 12 Developer Preview 1, the operating system update is ready to offer a major redesign for Pixel phones and beyond. In a separate leak, it is said that this redesign is called ‘Material NEXT’, which proposes a third generation guidelines for material design.

Although there were fewer surface level changes in Android 12 Developer Preview 1 than were seen in the leaks, our team was able to enable a substantial NEXT redesign of the Settings app. The features include a more accessible design similar to Samsung’s One UI, a redesigned search bar, thicker items in lists, and a design that responds to the system-wide theme colors you choose.

Since these early guidelines serve, we decided to try to imagine what Google’s programs are like. maybe look at the next generation of material design. Throughout this message you will see mockups visually demonstrating Google’s possible ways could redesign these programs. Keep in mind that Material NEXT is still in early development and that each app is also subject to its own design choices.

Gmail

When Google first unveiled Material Theming as a step forward from Material Design, Gmail was one of the first applications to redesign Google Material Theme. If we start our model the simpler way, Gmail does not need much to shake design.

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Here we simply swapped the ’rounded rectangle’ search bar for the more pill-shaped bar seen in the Settings app. The biggest change in the search bar is that the avatar of the Google Account is significantly larger and now floats outside the search bar, making it easier to touch or swipe.

Play Store

The Play Store homepage has made a similarly perfect candidate for the revamped search bar. In fact, the Play Store is better prepared for this Material NEXT redesign for the search bar than most other apps, as Google has previously experimented with dropping the loading menu altogether. In the specific experimental redesign, the loading options shifted to the menu that opens when you tap your avatar.

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Meanwhile, other sections of the Play Store are the best for yet another major redesign of the NEXT material. In the Settings app, each page gets a kind of banner that covers about the top third of the screen, keeping the content of the page within reach of your thumb. The banner shrinks smoothly and grows based on your page. In the second Play Store model above, we applied this flexible banner design to the “My Apps and Games” page.

If we add another layer to the mix, we believe that Material FOLLOW is closely related to the leaked and recently demonstrated theme system of Android 12. When developers in the Android community were able to activate the theme system, the colors are too prominently used in the Settings. app, including as a primary background color.

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For this mockup, we took the Google Contacts app, swapped the search bar, added a top third banner, and added the default blue and white color seen in the Settings app today.

Files by Google

The last piece NEXT we can point to today is that Google has revamped the Settings app’s homepage to make the items thicker. This particular design choice will have to be used selectively by app developers, as it reduces the “content density” or how much useful information you can fit on the screen. For example, it would be good for Google to skip this particular customization in Gmail.

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If you put it all together, the Files at Google app can get a very important Material NEXT makeup. The mockup above uses an upper third banner to keep everything within reach of the thumb, reuse the background of the app back to the standard blue, and use thicker list items.

Bonus: Google Fit

Since these are – in some cases important – suggestions for redesign, it’s only natural to wonder how long it might take before Google apps actually catch up with what’s happening in Android 12. which already in some places uses the flexible upper third banner. Take it for what you want.

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