Android and iOS have both received visual overhauls in 2025. Android 16’s QPR1 update brought the Material 3 Expressive style to Pixel phones, while iOS 26 offered the Liquid Glass aesthetic.
Colleague Rita El-Khoury felt that developers were treating Material 3 Expressive like an afterthought , but were quick to adopt Liquid Glass stylings. Nevertheless, we wanted to know which visual style you preferred, so we posted a poll inside Rita’s article. Here’s how you voted.
Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority?
This was a very popular poll, with over 6,500 votes tallied as of writing. It turns out that the top choice by a landslide was Material 3 Expressive, as 78.7% of respondents chose this over Liquid Glass.
Otherwise, some users in the comments rightfully noted the difficulty in having one consistent design language for Android when so many Android skins exist. They’re not wrong, either, as skins like Samsung One UI, OxygenOS, and Pixel UI all differ greatly from one another.
Meanwhile, 21.3% of surveyed readers chose Liquid Glass over Material 3 Expressive. Nobody praised Apple’s aesthetics in the comments. That’s not a surprise given our Android focus and readership, but it still drives home the divisive nature of this visual style.
If anything, we got a few comments lamenting both Apple and Google’s new visual stylings, such as this one from reader O_O:
I don’t like both as it’s make my device ui heavier I need speed ,quick access and performance not beauty where it doesn’t belong (sic)
Reader rzmeu93reader also echoed this sentiment:
Never liked the material design, it looks boring and oudated. Liquid glass is also trash, why tf do I need borders which move around icons and widgets, why do I need that transparency making a mess out of the UI by seeing the componennt below. Previous Apple design was better than both (sic).
... continue reading