Material Design was announced in 2014 as a cohesive design language for both first and third party web and mobile apps. Google is now expanding Material to be a “system that supports the principles of good design and strengthens communication and productivity” with a new suite of tools and open source projects (via The Verge).
Ever since the introduction of Material Design way back at 2014’s I/O, Google has put a lot more emphasis on design than ever before. “Google Design” itself became a thing, and among the initiatives promoted by the company to bolster its overhauled aesthetic sense, there are proper MD “Awards”, whose 2016 winners have just been announced…
Despite its recent foray in the hardware business, Google is first and foremost a company that relies on advertising. And so, in turn, lots of people rely on the company’s own online monetization tool, AdSense, whose website just got a Material Design coat of paint…
Earlier this year, Google added bottom navigation bars to the Material Design spec. Top navigation tabs are still permitted, but apps like Google Photos and Google+ have prominently switched over to the new style. Wikipedia is now the latest to adopt these bottom navigation bars across its Android app…
Geekbench, one of the most popular benchmarking applications on Android, has just been updated to version 4.0 — packing a few improvements. These include a new Material Design user interface, improvements to its CPU workload benchmark,, and the introduction of the GPU compute workload benchmark…
Over the past few years, Google has slowly been transitioning its apps and services to a material design UI. Now Google has applied these changes to the Goo.gl URL shortener. The new and improved appearance not only looks better, but it adds some better functionality to the service as well.
The Drive web app has received a slight revamp this morning that brings it in line with the Material Design of current Google sites. Additionally, Drive on the web is getting better downloads support, especially for large files and Google Forms.
The official Twitter client on all platforms has predominately had a very bright theme. While white and blue are the company’s color scheme, it often makes it a hassle to read tweets at night. After a Material redesign of the Android client last month, Twitter is now updating its Android app with a night mode…
Update: Announced in version 50 of Chrome OS, Material Design is now enabled by default on Mac with this latest update. Those who have pointed out how “un-Maclike” it looks can switch back to the older Non-Material design by going to Chrome flags here.
Chrome 52 is rolling out now to Mac, Windows, and Linux. The latest version of the Google browser contains the usual bug and security fixes, but notably removes the ability to use “backspace” as a return shortcut. It also adds several developer features to improve browser performance.
We know that Samsung has slowly begun investing more into its own Tizen OS platform as of late (and recent rumors suggest that it could begin moving in that direction even more). But now it appears that yet another Android OEM has begun building its own mobile OS: Huawei. The Chinese company “doesn’t want to be on the crutch of Android,” according to a report today from The Information, although people familiar with the project say it’s still early days…
Google has today completely revamped its longstanding Google Fonts website with Material Design, making it easier — and more beautiful — than ever to browse and try out the site’s huge collection of open source designer fonts. The old Fonts site — which first launched in 2010 — was practically begging to be reborn, and today Google delivered…
Created by a single developer, Weather Timeline is one of the best examples of Material Design on Android. Packing the same attention to design, Sam Ruston’s next app is a highly customizable Twitter client. Everything from the look of Flamingo to how the interface functions can be personalized to your liking…
Back at 2014’s I/O, Google unveiled a new all-encompassing design language called Material Design, aimed at drastically reshaping the look of everything Google.
While its first implementations were seen — understandably — on Android, it took a little longer for the transition to take place on the web; we are now seeing Chrome being reworked under Material’s principles, and it now appears that the company’s stronghold, Search, may be on the verge of its long overdue redesign …
The last major update to Google Keep in April added a Chrome extension to easily save and add notes to links. An update today adds link previews, duplication prevention, and autocomplete when adding list items. The Keep site is also getting a significant refresh that matches Google’s other web apps.
A major update to Skype last year introduced a Material redesign for phones and made the app feel more native to Android. Rolling out now, version 7.0 brings Material Design to Android tablets with a redesigned interface for devices with larger screens. Besides a FAB, the update also brings a multi-pane view, powerful search, and more to what’s usually an under developed area on Android.
At an I/O session this evening, the inaugural winners of the Google Play Awards were announced. With 10 categories, winners were selected by the Google Play team based on launching or having a major update in the past 12 months, app quality, and innovation.
In this week’s top stories: The best Android phones you can buy (May 2016 edition), we go hands-on with CyanogenMod on the Honor 5X, the latest Android phone leaks, and we show you how to enable YouTube’s new Material reDesign on the web.
Head below for all of the handy links to this week’s most shared stories and videos.
Twitter has been A/B testing a re-designed Android app for nearly a month with a launch likely coming soon as more people are seeing it. In the mean time, Twitter has completely overhauled its mobile site with a new design that matches the Android revamp.
Most, if not all, of Google’s Android apps have received a Material redesign. With the Chrome OS update rolling out, YouTube on the web is the next and one of the last major products to get Material Design. Google appears to be A/B testing (via Android Police) the update with a small set of users, but it is quite easy for anyone to enable. Here’s how to do it…
In a sea of powerful, feature-packed, and well supported third party clients, the official Twitter app has generally never stood out as a particularly good choice for enjoying the social network’s experience.
One of the main gripes some users have had over the years is in regards to design; given the service’s popularity, it was odd to see its stock Android app maintain a fairly anonymous — and not particularly brilliant — UI, markedly in dissonance with the platform’s guidelines. However, the San Francisco-based company may have been hard at work to fix that…
Chrome 49 was released earlier this month to browsers and Android. It added many new APIs and under-the-hood changes for developers, but was mostly lacking new user features. Version 49 for Chrome OS, on the other hand, introduces a Material Design audio player and provides an updated look at what the Material redesign of the browser will look like.
