Android 16’s Huge Visual Redesign Is Definitely Funky, but Is It More Usable?

I think we can all agree that our smartphone software—iOS and Android—has become stale. The systems are functional but boring, which they kind of have to be for billions of collective users to know how to use them without needing to pull out a manual every five seconds. But the design pendulum—for Android, at least—is finally swinging away from digital minimalism and toward a louder and more graphic design-y user interface. Announced today ahead of next week’s annual Google I/O developer conference, the new “Material 3 Expressive” design language for Android 16 and Wear OS is the most opinionated take on Android that Google has put out. But will it tempt iPhone users over or further turn existing Android users away? We got an early glimpse of the Material 3 Expressive design language a week ago when Google “accidentally” published a blog post about it, but now we’ve seen some short videos and GIFs of the new Android 16 and Wear OS in action—and it certainly looks refreshing. Beyond t ... Read full article.