The headline feature of Android 12 was Material You, a dynamic theme system that generates a color palette from your wallpaper and applies that across the system and some applications. However, Google’s theme engine wasn’t initially available for other manufacturers to use, so companies like Samsung or Xiaomi had to make their own implementations or simply go without it. Google announced on Thursday that it’s working directly with OEMs to get Material You-like themes on more phones and tablets.
Google said in a blog post, “We’re excited to announce that Material You, specifically dynamic color, will soon be available on more Android 12 phones globally, including devices by Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, realme, Xiaomi, Tecno, and more! […] As more Android 12 devices land in the next couple months, our OEM partners are working with us to ensure that key design APIs, especially around dynamic color, work consistently across the Android ecosystem so developers can have peace of mind and users can benefit from a cohesive experience.”
Source: Google
It was reported earlier this week that Google was preparing to require any new Android 12-based devices to implement a dynamic theme engine that meets certain criteria (generating five tonal palettes, three accents, and two neutral), which could be Google’s own “Monet” engine or another alternative with a similar function. Monet isn’t publicly open-source yet, but Google is starting to share the code with manufacturers, and a full open-source release will happen alongside Android 12L.
Material You support is slowly rolling out to popular apps, though it’s still a rare sight outside of Google’s own applications. Google Translate, Gmail, Google Recorder, Google Clock, the Play Store, Chrome, and other apps currently have partial or full Material You theming at this point.
Check out our Material You theme engine explainer if you’re curious about how it all works.