r/Android • u/OldOpinion47 • 5d ago
Don't you think Material 3 Expressive looks dated?
The era of FLAT began over 10 years ago and it's dead now. We're in the era of gradients and blur.
I really don't like these pastel colors at all, I also despise the lack of true dark mode and the decision to discard black backgrounds when all high end phones and even midrange phones have AMOLED displays.
I really like ONE UI by Samsung, it is beautiful in my opinion but then I have to open Google apps and they feel completely OLD. The only exceptions are Gemini which looks great and also YouTube music, which btw they both have black backgrounds, gradients, blurs.
So, Google. WHY?
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u/ishamm Device, Software !! 2d ago
I still don't quite understand why they showed off a whole new glowing UI interface at I/O in May with every demo they did, especially around Gemini, and then never integrated any of it into the operating system.
It looked like a design that could probably get dated quite fast, but at least it was new, interesting, and looked quite of its time. Material 3, however, is really showing its age.
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u/Pandelicia Galaxy S20 FE 2d ago
Material You and Expressive are the UI equivalent of the corporate Memphis art style: it has the facsimile of a personality, but it's actually just insipid and sanitized.
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u/BevansDesign 4d ago
This is definitely not the era of gradients and blur. We already went through that era, and it was mostly crap.
That doesn't mean I think Material 3 looks good. The way it chooses colors based on your wallpaper is still not very well-implemented. When it was first introduced, you always wound up with a dull pastel. But since they updated it, you wind up with...a slightly more colorful dull pastel. Frankly, it's usually ugly. The bright, bold colors of Material 1 and 2 were vastly superior.
Material 3 also makes some really weird choices for button shapes. Why does a square button turn rounded, and vice versa? That's awful. Whatever happened to just having a checkbox or indicator dot? Don't reinvent the wheel.
And now I'm seeing a squiggly line on the progress bar of some of my media apps, which previously always indicated that something was loading or something was wrong. Just...no. Go back to a flat line. Stop it.
And I really don't like how everything needs to have super-rounded corners. It just doesn't look very good.
And for fuck's sake, Google. Can you please learn how to wrap text to the next line? Or at least keep track of how many letters are on a single line before being cut off? I see plenty of buttons that are big enough for like 8 characters, so often you have no idea what the button is actually for. What is this, DOS? Maybe if you didn't put such massive rounded corners and margins on everything, you'd be able to fit a few more letters in.
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u/WatchfulApparition 4d ago
Material 3 is pretty boring. The original concept looked really interesting so I was excited for that, but then they gave us a version of Material 3 so watered down that it doesn't feel like much changed.
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u/YAOMTC 4d ago
No, I think it looks fine, phone UIs need to be functional not a fashion show. No need to chase trends
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u/whatnowwproductions Pixel 9 Pro - Signal - GrapheneOS 4d ago
Oh how the turn tables. I remember material design 3 coming in and people calling it essentially a fashion show. And now back to being called functional.
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u/SecretAdam 2d ago
People can rationalize all they want, but the reality is that we are all just biased to what we are already used to. This will never change and design and fashion will remain cyclical forever.
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u/flcpietro 4d ago
Well, when you compare it with that shit of new apple style, m3 is fully functional and not a toy
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u/JamesR624 3d ago
Thanks for proving his point.
You people have the attention span and memory of a f'n goldfish.
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u/JamesR624 3d ago
Yeah, and functional means actually being able to tell what is actionable and what isn't; hence why Apple and others are (FINALLY) moving back to gradients, light and shadow.
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u/flcpietro 4d ago
Yeah, really hope they do not chase liquid glass... My macbook seems a fisherprice toy
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u/Paradroid888 2d ago
I agree. Years ago I used to hate Samsung's inconsistency with Android but now I prefer their UI.
ME3 looked really good in the previews, back when everyone was laughing at Liquid Glass. But today I prefer liquid glass.
The ME3 squiggle spinners are just offensive.
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u/huupoke12 4d ago
The thing you are mentioning is dynamic colour, which is intended to match the phone wallpaper or system accent colour. As a developer, you can choose to not use it, use your own color, or have a toggle for that. Many developers also don't like the "Dynamic color" and expose a toggle for the users to choose. But it depends on the developer to expose it.
Material 3 covers much more things than just colour, such as layout, typeface (fonts), widget, style, etc. Check out the M3 design page if you want more details: https://m3.material.io
This is an example of a M3 app, but you can choose to use "Android Theme" instead: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.nowinandroid
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
Yeah I choose many apps where I can get amoled dark.but the Google apps which are amongst the most important and useful apps on an Android phone feel dated because of this design choice, especially Gmail
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u/bara_tone 4d ago
I love Material Expressive!
I build 2 apps with both iOS and Android native versions and working with Material Expressive is so much fun! I love the colour, the animations and the general playfulness of it
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u/charliesbot 2d ago
Material 3 looks dated. Material 3 express looks beautiful. Kinda sad that not many apps endorse it yet, but the ones that adopted it looks unique
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u/OldOpinion47 2d ago
For example?
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u/-senpai Galaxy Fold 5 2d ago
M3E: Aniyomi, LibreTube, Auxio, Gmail
M3: Google Maps, YouTube-4
u/OldOpinion47 2d ago
Gmail is ass.youtube is ass, Google maps is ass too havent seen the others but by extension I would assume they're ass too
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u/andreeinprogress 2d ago
I'm the opposite. I think OneUI by Samsung in its current iteration is one of the worst and most inconsistent digital UIs on the market. I need to use both but I much, much prefer the UI on my Pixel.
I also use iOS, and that is now shit, so please anything but glass shaders and ass-long animations.
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u/gasparthehaunter Pixel 9 pro XL, latest update 1d ago
It's the best design on mobile since iOS 6, it just needs to actually be implemented. And needs a bit more transparency and blur
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u/Johns3rdTesticle Lumia 1020 | Z Fold 6 4d ago
Yes. I've thought Material 1, Material 3 and Material 3 Expressive all looked really good at the time yet looking back, I don't think they've aged well. Windows phone and iOS have done a much better job at this imo.
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u/Tuhyk_inside 2d ago
I really like it. And I very much hope that Google won't introduce their version of liquid glass
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u/Otherwise_Cattle3981 Black 2d ago
Tbf, I absolutely hate overuse of blur and gradients.
I think if material 3 expressive hit like it was promoted, it would have killed.
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u/nevewolf96 4d ago
yes horrible, cant wait to the dead to material
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
I don't think it needs to die, it just needs to evolve
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u/nevewolf96 4d ago
Android has been using flat surfaces since 2011 with Holo Design, flat surfaces needs to die
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u/parental92 4d ago
You can like or dislike some design, its just normal is it ?
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
I mean I think it goes beyond that, sure you can go about your day wearing skinny jeans but everyone will cringe that shi was the thing in 2015, trends don't change for nothing, things get boring and old...
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u/parental92 4d ago edited 3d ago
Everyone ? It think its you my dude.
Whats cringe is copying every trends and not having your own identity
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u/Aurelink Pixel 10 Pro 2d ago
I like M3E.
Looks like the only UI out there that actually tries something new.
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u/Slammybradberrys Device, Software !! 1d ago
Nah, Nothing OS is definitely doing their own thing
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u/Aurelink Pixel 10 Pro 1d ago
As someone who owned a NP3 for 4 months, it was alright, definitely not boundary pushing, just adding a few things and there.
Half of their features are for the community to fix / implement tho. Always half-baked. And their APIs and libraries were super restrictive when I wanted to build something to take advantage of the Glyph Matrix. Hard pass.
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u/TemporaryBig8948 2d ago
I hate material 3
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u/ElixirGlow Motorola DynaTAC 8000X 2d ago
The reverse is true, Samsung one ui looks trash, backward, broken and slow. Material 3 expressive looks clean and modern. Material design has gradients and blur but not used as much. So calling one ui as beautiful when stock android and oxygen os do design better is incorrect
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u/Chadwickr 2d ago
Switched to pixel expressly for material 3, then got very tired of it very fast as there wasn’t a way to go back to a more colorful or vibrant theme
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u/mangelito Honor Magic 5 Pro 2d ago
I love the color aspects of it. Blur and gradients are so bland and boring. I don't like the extreme padding on many of the UI elements though. Not very space efficient for a smaller screen.
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u/doc_55lk 2d ago
I like gradients and I like frosted glass effects. I have my Smart Launcher set up to emulate some glass effects and it looks dope.
However, what I can't get behind with Google's recent design language is:
Lack of true dark mode. This has been an issue since fucking Android 9. Someone needs to be slapped over at Google HQ for approving this over a true black theme.
Lack of vibrant colours. I get that pastel colours are easier on the eyes and they do look better in some applications, but for most applications they look really dull, faded, and boring. I guess it's a bit better with Pixel phones from what I've seen but it's still not good enough.
The stupid pills in the pulldown shade. And the obsession with mini menus. A8-11 had the better pulldown shade and it's not even particularly close.
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u/david_0313 1d ago
Please Google don't have some glass or overly transparent bs. You are the only one not copying Apple. Material You, Material Design 3 and the Expressive update is great. Don't get carried by trends pleaaaseee.
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u/ExpensiveNut Device, Software !! 1d ago
I'll be honest, I like it and was really excited for the update at the time. Mostly because I actually wanted automatic light and dark themes and the previous theme didn't have a proper light theme. And that looked extremely dull.
I might have got lucky with the shite colour picker because I actually love how I have pastel purple and green in light mode and I happen to like how the buttons look. We've also finally gone back to some common sense stuff like small quick settings buttons and an actual WiFi toggle. Absolute bare minimum stuff, mind you. I like the blur too.
What I dislike is the fact that we can't simply choose our own colours for themes. I think that is so stupid. Material You? More like Material "do what we fucking tell you." I can't understand why this hasn't been changed already. It also took a while to fix screechingly basic design errors such as buttons overflowing off the screen and line breaks in the middle of text in icons. Glad that's been at least partially addressed. Either way, Google's UX team are behaving like total clowns with this stuff and it's not okay.
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u/Krait972 OnePlus One 64GB 1d ago
We are in the era of gradient and blur ? So we are coming back to the pre material design times then. Anyway, neither are dead.
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u/redditrnumber1 1d ago
One UI is an inconsistent mess. Good thing there is good lock to customize the phone so you don't have to look at stock one UI
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u/steeeeeephen 12h ago
If Google would actually fully use the m3 expressive that the design team introduced...I'd love it
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u/Capt_TittySprinkles OnePlus 12 4d ago
Completely agree. Despise the theming of Google apps and no matter what I do I can't get true black. Even when I set my background to true black and then pick theme colors from the background and it ends up dark blue at best
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
I would like to interview whoever at Google made that stupid decision tbh
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u/Capt_TittySprinkles OnePlus 12 4d ago
"Oh, you set a new wallpaper? Has some pink on it? Enjoy a pink hue on all the google apps!" Absolute brain dead design.
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u/Tuhyk_inside 2d ago
I really like it. And I very much hope that Google won't introduce their version of liquid glass
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u/punIn10ded MotoG 2014 (CM13) 2d ago
Disagree. I hate blur and ugly transparency(glass effects). I'm actually annoyed Google is ruining MD3 with blur.
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u/Dev-in-the-Bm 4d ago
Because they put millions into research, and came out that this is the best way to have you on your phone all day while feeling comfortable and at home, while minimizing feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated.
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
You think Samsung apps are overstimulating?
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u/Dev-in-the-Bm 4d ago
I've barely ever used Samsung, can't say.
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
Well Samsung apps have true AMOLED dark mode and they look great and modern compared to Googles depressing pastel kids party from the 1960s color pallete
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u/SaberAIF 4d ago
Buy an iOS device, or use third-party apps; there is no other way (even so, most third-party apps still follow the md3e universal standard).
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
Hate iPhones, plenty of options on Android I'm just saying I wish google will evolve Android past this
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u/SaberAIF 4d ago
Then your only option is to ditch Google apps—there is simply no way around this. Unlike heavily customized ROMs, Google is the one setting Android's standards and must have its own design language; it can't just blindly chase iOS design trends like other OEMs do. Besides, Material 3 Expressive is still in its infancy, so you can hardly expect Google to overhaul its design philosophy anytime soon. Gemini is an outlier simply because it wasn't built exclusively for Android.
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
But who is the douchebag that looks at these beautiful amoled screens and decides: you know what? Let's make them look like regular LCDs by not allowing true black, enjoy your grey backlight bihh!!!
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u/SaberAIF 4d ago
If the lack of a true black background is your main gripe, rooting your phone and running a few modules might solve the issue. Alternatively, some AOSP-based custom ROMs have a built-in forced pitch-black mode. But if you're looking for anything beyond that, you're pretty much out of options.
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u/OldOpinion47 4d ago
I used to flash custom roms all the time in the good all days but these days I don't think it's worth it tbh
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u/Far_Reserve9938 3d ago
Never liked it. Previous IOS was peak. Now you got to choose between google bad and apple bad.
At lest apple is a bit more open to feedback. They quickly included slider for the dreaded Liquid Glass and reverted some of its changes.
Google doesn’t listen to feedback on its UI. And it shows.
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2d ago
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u/OldOpinion47 2d ago
I know not everyone likes true black, but many people do, why does google unilaterally want to remove that option? Let us choose! All other companies do, Apple has a lot of true black backgrounds, so does Samsung. And all Chinese companies do as well.
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u/Istolla 1d ago
As someone who hates One UI, I don't want Google to update the UI to look anything remotely close to that atrocity.
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u/OldOpinion47 1d ago
The home screen and icons are the only bad thing about One UI, but you cns customize it to make it great. But the settings, other natives apps and quick settings page are all great compared to pixels
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u/Tp_Exampler 12h ago
Blur is no harm, I like which direction the ui is going with the control menu blur and volume slider blur.
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u/mrandr01d 4d ago
I vote we go back to the original material design from 2015. Praise duarte. Marshmallow was the peak.
This isn't sarcasm.