The new Android design is inflatable and I am completely for that

From blobs to rebound through bright colors, your phone is about to appear and feel very different, Google bringing more than one opinion approach to its design that we have never seen before. In the world of software design, many are used to seeking to inspire Apple, but Google’s hardware design dollars are to date with its most daring and daring design strategy. Will Google’s more fun approach be a success and attracts a brand new type of consumer to try Android? Or will he just alienate longtime Android users?

In my time with the last Android 16 Beta, I met some of these new design elements, while some are not yet implemented. Let’s dive into some of my favorite interactions.

Give life to Android with a rebound

There is a new rebound in all Android as a whole. This is the best word I can think of to describe what it looks like and feels, and it makes the operating system more functional, fun and interactive, giving it life in a way that previous versions have not done so. The changes are subtle but important, adding to a global design which seems fluid and fun.

The most obvious example is the new notification panel. The sweep to reject an alert now gives the impression of taking off the notification far from the battery, in the best possible way. Slowly slide to really see all the different aspects of this apparently simple interaction come together. The corners are transformed from slightly to the square to more round, the surrounding notifications are still moving as slightly in the same direction as your scanning, and just at the right time – about 10% of the track in your scan – haptic feedback signals the point to which your chosen notification detaches from the battery, while making remaining notifications rebounded on the installation of the Vive. All of this meets to create a really satisfactory scanning gesture.

Before this change, a dismissal of notification felt independent of the surrounding notifications. You slide, the box would fly from the screen and the battery would collapse together to fill the space. Although this has worked well then, the whole experience seems more consistent and intentional now. And again, this snap – or haptic feedback, rather – when the notification stands out from the rest of the battery is super satisfactory.

Another example of the Google movement towards movement is the increase in the change of shape with the components of the material. Google’s updated design documentation now contains a ton of new tools and directives to create a more animated user interface, as button groupsWhere the selected button is transformed into a more oval shape, while the non -selected buttons remain more square.

You can already see this shape move in the new fast setting panel. When you turn on the flashlight, for example, the button goes from a rounded oval to a rounded square. It is a great way to quickly visualize the activated buttons and which are not. And of course, there is this rebound again. The surrounding buttons have been animated with a rebound with each tap of the pocket lamp, again leading to a more coherent experience.

As we are still in a beta version, there are still a lot of new design elements along the way. You can consult the full list of expressive components of equipment 3 in Google’s documentation.

It only has so Google cares enough

Google clearly indicates: it wants Android and applications on the platform to come to life. And that also means, so much so that it understands a completely new Movement physics system In expressive M3, designed to allow developers to personalize the physics of their applications more easily than possible. This is something that fascinates me particularly, and I really hope that Google and third -party developers implement it in a good taste, leading to applications that feel like at home in this new evolution of Android.

This is a really important point, however. All this seems great – and so far, what I have seen, looks great – but will the developers buy in this new design language? Will Google itself imply in their own applications, thus taking the lead and giving the example of what M3 is expressive? There are already traces pointing to some of the main Google applications implementing the new design language, but only time will tell us if other developers will follow suit.

I have been using Android for a long time now. Pixel 2 XL was my first Android device, however, so I know that many of you have used Android much longer than me. This makes me ask me what the most permanent Android lovers think of this design direction. Historically, Android did not use so many movements, which may be preferred by some longtime users. With the new direction, it seems that Google opts for a more mass market attraction, and I would say that it is the right decision, positioning Google to call on a generation of users who are used, for example, for the fluidity of iOS, but perhaps they plan to try Android thanks to the promising features of Google.

Google makes a huge bet here with expressive equipment 3. The movement adds a fluidity that lacked in the previous versions of Android, a cohesion which now seems obvious, and a whole new way for developers to make their applications more beautiful and more functional. The objective is apparently in the name itself – the design of materials – and all these new animations make your device more like a material that you may feel.