Expressive Android: Inside Material Design 3.5

It’s interesting to see both Apple and Google targeting 2025 for major operating system design overhauls. While Android’s Material 3 Expressive redesign has been praised for its system-wide impact, a closer look at Google’s own applications reveals a more nuanced story. The update feels less like a revolutionary step and more like a significant, yet incremental, evolution, essentially a Material 3.5.

On devices like phones and tablets, M3 Expressive successfully creates a unified and modern feel. However, within Google’s first-party apps, the “Expressive” promise doesn’t fully materialize in this initial wave. The changes are present but often feel like straightforward component swaps rather than a complete, thoughtful reimagining of older interfaces.

One noticeable shift is in the search app bar. The design now places the hamburger menu and profile avatar outside a taller, pill-shaped container. This creates a cleaner, more modern look in apps like Gmail, Drive, and Google Keep. Yet, this move away from the previous universal design, where all elements lived inside the search bar, has ironically reduced consistency. Apps like Contacts or Phone, which lack either a profile switcher or hamburger menu, can’t utilize this new component uniformly, leading to a fragmented experience across the Google ecosystem.

Another puzzling change is the navigation bar. Material 3 Expressive reverts to a shorter bottom bar from the taller version seen in earlier Material You designs. This adjustment doesn’t provide meaningful extra space for content and even contradicts M3E’s own emphasis on larger touch targets, evident in its bigger buttons and FABs. The transition is still underway, with some apps yet to be updated.

A related navigation element that sparked discussion is the floating toolbar, seen in apps like Google Chat. It’s designed to show context-specific actions rather than serve as primary navigation, with Google Photos’ album view being a key example. While the “Liquid Glass” visual effect is sleek, its practicality as a navigation tool is debatable. Docking it to the bottom ultimately makes better use of screen space.

The design’s increased use of containers is a double-edged sword. They improve usability by making tappable areas obvious and helping information stand out. However, this approach can make interfaces feel overly cluttered or dense, especially in list-heavy apps. There’s a valid question about whether some applications are now over-containerized, a concern highlighted by Google Drive’s apparent rollback of the feature after initially implementing it.

Button sizing has also grown considerably. While larger touch targets, like the prominent FABs in Drive and Docs, are functional, some “extra large” buttons, such as those in Google Meet, can appear disproportionate and even comical within the overall layout.

Where M3 Expressive truly shines is in its motion design. New physics-based animations make interactions feel more fluid and natural. The pull-to-refresh in Google Photos is a standout, and the spring-loaded FAB menu in Google Docs feels responsive. Even loading indicators have been upgraded from simple spinners to more dynamic M3E shapes.

Ultimately, the daily experience of using Google apps hasn’t been dramatically altered by Material 3 Expressive. The system interface on Android itself feels more alive and cohesive, but this harmony hasn’t fully translated to the app ecosystem. While the new components modernize the look, they don’t deliver a fundamentally more engaging or easier-to-use experience within the apps themselves. The redesign standardizes the visual language but misses the opportunity to rethink core app interfaces from the ground up with true expressiveness. For now, it feels like a solid, if somewhat safe, step forward rather than a bold leap.

(Source: 9to5 Google)