The revamped design language is arriving later this year, but might be hitting Pixels first as a beta as soon as early June. So far, so good.
Not bad at all, but not terribly original either (Image Credit––Google)
Reason #1 – A clear step away from independent design
With Android 16, Google is kind of throwing away some of the uniqueness of its previous Material Design style, which was fairly unique for a while and definitely stood proud with fairly exclusive aesthetics and design language. Now, although the upcoming redesign looks like a logical evolution of this aesthetic, it borrows a bit too much from existing interfaces and loses some of its identity.
Reason #2 – Blink and you might miss it
The main reason I find it challenging to get excited about Android 16 is the fact that few users will see it in its full glory.
That’s because Android 16 as demoed by Google in the promotional videos and screenshots will only arrive on Google’s Pixels. What we saw at the Android Show won’t be available on your Samsung, or Xiaomi, or Vivo, or Oppo phone, as pretty much any Android manufacturer has its own custom skin that usually doesn’t follow Android’s stock aesthetics to the T. We’ve seen time and time again and during previous Android design overhauls that the changes introduced by Google don’t necessarily get adopted by the majority of Android vendors out there.
Great if you have a Pixel, irrelevant otherwise| Image credit — Google
Overall, I think Android 16‘s new look will be the exception rather than the rule, which is why I’m hardly holding my breath for it.
