Google’s big Material 3 Expressive leak
Google has accidentally leaked details about its upcoming Material 3 Expressive design language. The unveiling of this new UI design is set to take place at the Google I/O 2025 event later this month, alongside the launch of Android 16.
Despite Google’s efforts to keep some information under wraps, a blog post detailing the Material 3 Expressive UI was briefly published before being swiftly removed. Fortunately, the internet never forgets, and a preserved version of the post is now available for all to see.
The post delves into the extensive research that went into developing Material 3 Expressive, starting from a simple question posed by an intern in 2022: “Why do all apps look the same and feel so boring? Can’t we enhance the user experience?”
Google conducted 46 research studies with over 18,000 participants, utilizing eye tracking, experiments, and focus groups to refine the Material 3 Expressive UI.
Google via 9to5Google
What to expect from Material 3 Expressive
Google describes the Material 3 Expressive system as “beautiful and highly usable,” focusing on making key actions more prominent and grouping similar elements together. The new UI design aims to surpass current standards for tap target size and color contrast to enhance usability for all users.
A notable feature of Material 3 Expressive is the floating toolbar at the bottom of Google apps, designed to highlight key UI elements. The new Gmail app showcases a larger and more prominent Send button positioned above the keyboard, emphasizing ease of use.
Google’s approach to developing Material 3 Expressive involved gathering feedback from users to create a design language that prioritizes user experience. The simplicity of this approach is expected to yield intriguing results.
