What you need to know

• Google’s new design language for Android, called M3 Expressive, focuses on making designs that feel good, make sense, and help you get things done, using color, shape, size, motion, and containment to guide your focus.
• The goal is to build interfaces that connect with users on a deeper, emotional level.
• Google plans to reveal this big design shift at the I/O developer conference.

If your phone or favorite app suddenly looks a little more stylish, colorful, and friendlier, it’s probably thanks to Google’s new design update it’s calling Material 3 Expressive.

At the upcoming I/O developer conference, Google is set to officially show off the next big chapter in Android’s design story, which got leaked earlier this month. It’s not just giving it a fresh coat of paint — the company is switching things up in a big way.

In a fresh blog post, Google explains that M3 Expressive is all about design that feels good, makes sense, and helps you do what you came to do. It leans on five key ingredients, such as color, shape, size, motion, and containment to subtly steer your attention to the stuff that actually matters on your screen.

Design with feels

The new design direction aims to build interfaces that actually connect with users on a deeper, more emotional level. Big shifts like this don’t just change how Android looks, but also change how app developers build and shape their apps too.

Google is hyping M3 Expressive as its most heavily tested design system ever, and it has the numbers to back it up. After 46 rounds of design tweaks and feedback from over 18,000 people, the company has landed on a style that leans hard on color, shape, size, and motion to make everything feel smoother and easier to use.

The tech giant conducted its research to look into what grabbed people’s attention in a design, how different visual styles made them feel, and how quickly they could figure out what an interface was supposed to do.

Speed demon mode

Google also went into the specifics with its testing, like figuring out which progress bar made wait times feel shorter, or how big a button should be to hit it easily without covering up the rest of the screen. It even dug into how different loading animations mess with our sense of time while waiting.

The Mountain View-based company claims that Material 3 Expressive helps users spot key interface elements up to four times faster than the old Material 3 design. Additionally, it levels the playing field across age groups, with users over 45 finding interface elements just as quickly as younger folks, as per Google.

What you need to know

• YouTube turned 20 recently, and it is bringing new features and some tweaks to its design on its TV app.
• YouTube TV members can experiment with building their own multiview, and this can be done with non-sports content as well.
• It is expanding its “voice reply” to comments feature to more creators across the board.
• The redesign of the YouTube app will also include a new look for its video player.

YouTube turned 20 this week and celebrating its two decade milestone, the streaming platform shared some fun facts about its inception along with latest features that are being testing and coming to users soon.

What began as a 19-second video back in 2023 has now evolved into a full-blown streaming giant, with over 20 million video uploads each day. YouTube has also become a hub for people to have conversations and comment, and react to all sorts of videos, whether they like it or not. According to the streaming platform, “in 2024, YouTube users averaged over 100 million comments on videos daily. And we discovered that last year, creators received comments from an average of 10 million viewers every day.”

That said, YouTube seems to be giving back to its avid users as well. In its blog post, YouTube said that in a few weeks, YouTube TV users can test out multiviews on their account. They can build their personalized multi-view window that showcases non-sports channels as well. Considering that YouTube is testing this feature out, YouTube says that it is starting “with a small group of popular channels and expanding in the coming months.”

For its Premium users, the streaming platform is immediately rolling out 4x playback speed on mobile devices. This was being tested out in February and has now finally landed. More creators will have the ability to voice-respond to comments on their videos.

Furthermore, users can start creating their personalized radio station with the AI-powered tool called “Ask Music”. You can speak or ask YouTube to create a playlist for you with “upbeat songs for a morning run,” “calm jazz for studying,” “80s-inspired indie,” or even something more specific to your mood. Ask Music is available on iOS and Android for all YouTube Premium and YouTube Music users.

Lastly, the YouTube TV app is getting a full redesign this summer, the blog post added.”Easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, plus streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing are heading to your screens,” YouTube stated.

The company shared a quick glimpse of what the new UI would look like, featuring video from @LoFiGirl. The controls on the new UI are more spread out when compared to the current version. The channel, description, and subscribe buttons are on the left, the play/pause and next controls are in the center, making it more accessible and prominent. While the other controls, like settings and the like/dislike toggles, remain on the left of the screen, as seen above.