Google accidentally reveals Android’s Material 3 Expressive interface ahead of I/O

Google’s accelerated Android release cycle will soon deliver a new version of the software, and it might look quite different from what you’d expect. Amid rumors of a major UI overhaul, Google seems to have accidentally published a blog post detailing “Material 3 Expressive,” which we expect to see revealed at I/O later this month. Google quickly removed the post from its design site, but not before the Internet Archive saved it.
↫ Ryan Whitwam at Ars Technica

Google seems to be very keen on letting us know this new redesign is based on a lot of user research and metrics, which always sets off alarm bells in my mind when it comes to user interfaces. Every single person uses their smartphone and its applications a little differently, and using tons of metrics and data to average all of this out can make it so that anyone who strays to far from that average is going to have a bad time. This is compounded by the fact that each and every one of us is going to stray form the average in at least a few places.

Google also seems to be throwing consistency entirely out of the window with this redesign, which chills me to the bone. One of the reasons I like the current iteration of Material Design so much is that it does a great job of visually (and to a less extent, behaviourally) unifying the operating system and the applications you use, which I personally find incredibly valuable. I very much prefer consistency over disparate branding, and the screenshots and wording I’m seeing here seem to indicate Google considers that a problem that needs fixing.

As with everything UI, screenshots don’t tell the whole story, so maybe it won’t be so bad. I mean, it’s not like I’ve got anywhere else to go in case Google messes this up. Monopolies (or duopolies) are fun.