Google makes it easy for Android developers to create apps with its Material You Design

Android 12 launched alongside Google's new Pixel 6 lineup and brings with it a new look that Android VP of Product Management Sameer Samat called "the biggest design change in Android history." That's in reference to Material You, which applies a new set of principles for creating interfaces, plus changes that will help Android adapt to larger screens. We've already gotten a hint of how appearance affects usability in the updated operating system and Google's own apps, but now the focus is expanding to reach more apps created by others.

Today at Google's Android Developer Summit, the company announced that Material You is available in Jetpack Compose, so application designers can more easily adapt the look in their own products.

The new elements include dynamic guidelines that will help apps algorithmically respond and adjust to the user's choice of wallpaper, as well as tips on how to maintain the individual branding of a third-party app while adapting. Another element that developers will need to learn is design tokens that "represent the styles of the design system as data" so they can change as the system changes.

Developers can see how their apps will look under different circumstances using Material Theme Builder, which is available as a Figma plugin and on the web starting today. Beyond how apps look, Google says that new features for its Jetpack libraries will help developers manage Android 12 background restrictions, measure performance, and handle backward compatibility.

For future updates, Google says it is planning accessibility updates that relate to dynamic colour and responsive layouts. Other orientations and system tweaks will help apps work with new form factors, like folding, although Google doesn't make a folding phone.