Android 12 is kind of here for a select few: you can download the very early Android 12 developer beta and get a first glimpse of what is likely the biggest redesign that the Android system has seen in years. New widgets, new looks, new style, and all of that is now known as “Material You” interface, where the “You” likely refers how you can custom fit it to your taste.
Android 12 developer beta has a new “sparkle” ripple effect turned on by default for every button. What do you think about it? pic.twitter.com/rVmSRBLFSw
— PhoneArena (@PhoneArena) May 28, 2021
It’s referred to as a “ripple effect” and was officially introduced to the world by Android Toolkit developer Romain Guy at Google I/O sessions, so it’s something very intentional and not just a random inclusion.
It’s present all throughout but best noticeable with darker backgrounds and… it’s strange! I would understand this new look if it was part of some pink fairy tale custom theme and accompanied by a Comic Sans font on say the Samsung theme store, but it looks out of place as part of the main UI. Sparkle buttons and fairy dust are just not the first thing that comes to mind with an overall move to a cleaner look that should appeal to most people.
Comments on the web on this new “effect” mostly circle around users being confused and thinking this was some sort of a bug, before finding out it was actually intentional.
This is not the only strange design decision in Android 12: some people are also complaining that the new bounce or stretchy scroll is also hard to get used to. An interesting fact about it is that this kind of scrolling is default on iOS ever since it launched, but it only comes to Android now because the patent on it has just expired. Previously, you would get a blue glow whenever you scroll to the end of a list to indicate it was over, but now you get a bit of a bounce and stretch, much like on iOS. However, the implementation seems to be a bit different and not quite as refined.
Google itself seems a bit unsure about the design direction it has taken and is now running a poll asking users to rate some of the new visual features such as the Quick Settings and Volume panel with possible answers ranging from “Very dissatisfied” to “Very satisfied”. Unfortunately, the fairy dust sparkle is not something you can assess in that voting system yet.
