At an Android event held a week before I/O 2025, Google officially unveiled Material 3 Expressive. Google calls it one of the platform’s biggest design updates in years. Across Android, tablets, and Wear OS devices, Material 3 Expressive offers deeper personalisation, smoother animations, enhanced glanceability, and consistent visual styling.
Google says Material 3 Expressive’s fluid, springy animations are designed to delight users during everyday interactions.
Dismissal of Notifications:
When a notification is swiped away, nearby notifications react subtly to the gesture, accompanied by haptic feedback. Additionally, the notification shade background has a blur effect so users can focus while still seeing what’s active in the background.
System-wide Feedback:
Similar visual and tactile feedback appears throughout the system, from dismissing recent apps to adjusting the volume slider and pulling down the notification shade.
A compact view of Material 3 Expressive now allows users to pin more actions, such as Flashlight and Do Not Disturb.
Live Updates, which deliver real-time progress notifications from apps like Uber Eats, is a notable new feature. With these updates, users can easily track food deliveries, rideshares, or navigation without digging through notifications.
Google Photos and Gmail will also get Material 3 Expressive. In these apps, users can now choose colors and styles that match their system preferences.
WearOS 6:
The Material 3 Expressive design is also being applied to Wear OS, optimising it for smartwatches’ circular displays.
Animations in Wear OS follow the display’s curvature, and UI elements such as the pin pad and media controls respond to motion. Using the same watch face theme across the entire system UI should provide a seamless experience.
With Google Now, you can tap glanceable buttons that stretch to fit the screen. Messages and workouts are also conveniently accessible through the refreshed tiles. Due to further system optimisation, Wear OS 6 can provide up to 10 per cent more battery life.
Android 16 and Wear OS 6 will support Material 3 Expressive later this year. Pixel devices will be the first to receive it. It says these enhancements will also be coming to Android 16 and Wear OS 6 devices from Google.
