With Android 12, Google introduced the Material You Design, which is available in various versions and has not yet fully established itself outside of the pixel smartphones. That should change with the release of Android 13 because with the new version Google is dropping many restrictions and wants to enable both the design and dynamic theming for all manufacturers.
Material You is not only the evolution of Material Design but brings some fundamental changes in the design of the operating system and apps. The design consists of generous surfaces, is not afraid of bright colors and can be considered a mixture of playful and structured. First on the pixel smartphones, dynamic theming was added, which automatically adjusted the colors of the areas to the background image.
This dynamic theming was initially Pixel-exclusive and was opened up to all smartphone manufacturers with Android 12L, but they first had to have their own implementation approved by Google. App developers outside of the Google universe hardly rely on it because it can only be fully used under Android 12 and can then also be restricted by the smartphone manufacturers. Android 13 is set to change all that.
With Android 13, Google will drop the requirement that smartphone manufacturers implement the Material You design. Previously they had to use Material You but might not be able to use dynamic theming. In combination with the apps, this created a bit of a mess.
In Android 12, there is no automated test to verify that vendors are providing colors that meet visibility, readability, and accessibility requirements. To enable contributors to participate in Material You from day one, we work individually with contributors to implement and verify Material You, and then enable Material You for them using this allow list. Vendors can contact Android Partner Engineering to start this process. This ensures that vendors don’t inadvertently create colors that affect readability and that developers and users can expect a consistent experience with Material You. In Android 13, automated color scheme testing allows for a different strategy.
With Android 13, Google will rely on automatic tests so that smartphone manufacturers can implement the dynamic material You Theming without first having it verified by Google. Simultaneously with the elimination of the Material You obligation, implementation is made easier, so that overall acceptance should nevertheless increase. Material You has become the hallmark of Android 12, and that’s unlikely to change with Android 13, so manufacturers can’t help but support it.
Material You will be further expanded with Android 13, but there could already be initial adjustments with Android 14.
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