Third-party apps can use Jetpack Compose to add Material You
Over the past couple of months, Google has been working on giving all of its first-party apps and services the Material You design. Most of the proprietary apps like Chrome, Google Clock, and Gmail got the overhaul in Android 12. Even other apps like the Clock app on Wear OS and Chromebooks got a new coat of paint. This just leaves third-party apps. Getting developers on board for this visual renaissance won’t be easy, as there are a ton of them out there. Hence, the company is looking to make things simpler. The company is currently holding its Android Dev Summit, and it talked about how it plans on making this process easier. Google released a tool called Material You Theme Builder. This is a bit of software that devs can use to see how their apps will look with Material You applied. The primary function is to let them see how their apps will look with Dynamic Color applied. With this, we should be able to see Material You in more apps that we use every day.
In Other Android 12 News: 2022 Tablets and Fodables will have Android 12L
Android has lived on tablets for a decade now, but Google has yet to put any effort into optimizing it for the tablet form factor. In a surprising announcement during the Android Dev Summit, Google introduced Android 12L. This is an update that will drop early next year, and it will be aimed at tablets and foldable phones. This version of android will take the notification shade and split it into two columns; one for your quick settings and one for your notifications. This makes a lot of sense, as scrolling through notifications on a tablet is a hassle. There will also be a taskbar on the bottom of the screen which will house pinned apps for quick access. This is similar to what you would see on Chromebooks, Windows, or Mac computers. There will be other UI changes that will help make the software a bit better for the tablet form factor. We can’t ignore the elephant in the room; this is reminiscent of iPad OS. Apple created a version of iOS that works better for the iPad size, and it seems that Google is finally following suit. There’s a developer preview in the works for the Lenovo P12 Pro Tablet.
