This year, Google I/O was held in a virtual format. As it has been going on for several years now. I wanted to do a summary of an interesting talk for designers (primarily) and developers, so I'm sharing my notes after watching the sessions and reading the blog posts. I think it will be useful.
In short:
The annual Google I/O 2023 conference was online (mostly) on May 10. The main part set the record for the number of repetitions of the word "AI", so no big changes in Android and Material Design other than the release of the Pixel Fold phone with a flexible screen. But here's what's dug in:
The big screen and tablet support guidlines (a review and another one) have been strongly updated. More about working with them
The set of Jetpack components for Material 3 is being expanded. One of the unusual ones is a carousel with its own flavor.
More predictable animation for moving backwards (more about that).
Contrasting design themes to support accessibility. There is even a completely monochrome version.
Improved work with colors and design themes based on them.
A video presentation of their vision "forms follows feelings" - they justify the Material You logic. For some reason, they insult the original Material Design concept (where the term made sense) without offering a comparable metaphor.
A video presentation of a softer animation language.
ANDROID 14.
The new Design for Android site has collected everything about working on interfaces for all branches of the OS (review).
Android Studio has a bot like GitHub Copilot, which helps you write code.
There is a visual linking for finding accessibility problems.
It will be possible to stream apps from an Android phone to a Chromebook.
More flexible font scaling scale.
Simplification of passwords through their manager and passkeys method.
ANDROID AUTO
Receiving and using some of the machine's status data (e.g. fuel level).
Unification of all screens in the car (including passenger screens).
A section for designers and developers.
By the end of 2023, Android Auto will be available in 200 million cars
Here's all the video of the conference talks in general, if the review isn't enough.
Last year, I skipped the traditional review of Android design changes altogether because it was sparse. There's something here, but also no revolution. Let's see what happens at WWDC June 5-9.
