Google just leaked images of the upcoming Android redesign

By Willow Roberts Published May 6, 2025

Design elements Google Material 3 Expressive. — Google / 9to5Google

Google is due to unveil its new “Material 3 Expressive” design system at I/O 2025 this month, but someone at the company accidentally published a blog post about it this week. It was promptly deleted but the Wayback Machine already archived it and the quick-thinking folks at 9to5Google saved the images as well.

The blog post itself was all about the research that went into the new design system for Android 16. Google spent three years carrying out various studies and experiments with over 18,000 participants, including:

Eye tracking to see where people focus their attention
Surveys and focus groups to gather opinions and impressions
Experiments to discover preferences
Usability tests to see how quickly people could learn to use the interface

As you can guess from the naming, Google is going for an “expressive” design with this new system, which is all about making people “feel something” when they interact with the UI. According to Google’s research, this is both popular with younger people and easy to use for older people.

Recommended Videos

These images from the blog illustrate the difference between expressive design and non-expressive design.

The Gmail app mockup is the most striking to me, it does feel like email app designs are still stuck in the past “just because.” I want to see the images I attach and work with a design that actually feels like it was made for a phone.

Big text, bigger main buttons, floating toolbars, and “bold use of shape and color” are some of the main ideas behind Material 3 Expressive — but the images Google posted aren’t necessarily what you’ll end up with on your phone.

First of all, they’re currently only concept designs — no actual product exists yet. Secondly, when manufacturers like Samsung or Nothing make an Android phone, they make their own UI designs which all look a little different.

Now that we’ve seen lots of images and learned plenty about the research process, all that’s left is to find out exactly how (and when) Material 3 Expressive will be implemented. Hopefully, I/O 2025 will answer those questions.

Computing Writer

Willow Roberts has been a Computing Writer at Digital Trends for a year and has been writing for about a decade. She has a…

Topics

Phones

The phone you can actually repair yourself is finally coming to the US

A phone built to be fixed, not replaced, has officially landed stateside.

Fairphone-in-hand

Most US smartphone buyers gravitate towards popular smartphone brands, including Apple, Samsung, and Google. And while there’s no denying that these companies make exceptional smartphones, they all fall short in the department of repairability.

Break the display, and you are looking at repair costs of upwards of $300. Want to change the battery? It’s going to cost you at least $100, and even if you are ready to pay, you cannot repair it yourself.

Phones

Ugreen’s latest travel adapter packs 100W, four ports, and a screen into one charger

Ugreen’s new $55 charger puts a tiny dashboard on 100W of power

UGREEN Nexode Pro 100W 4-Port GaN Charger with Smart Display Featured

With the number of gadgets I use every day, I have reached the point where another charging brick needs to do something smart or better for me to consider buying it. The Ugreen Nexode Pro 100W 4-Port GaN Charger with Smart Display has quietly arrived in the US after recently launching in the UK.

It carries a $64.99 list price, while Ugreen and Amazon currently advertise a $54.99 promotional price. This travel adapter gets you three USB-C ports, one USB-A connection, and up to 100W of total charging power in a compact GaN wall charger.

Phones

Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy S26 FE may get one camera feature I absolutely loved

Horizon Lock is coming to the cheapest Galaxy S26 model

Close-up of three circular cameras on the back of the white Galaxy S25 FE

Over the last couple of weeks, leaks have already told us plenty about the Galaxy S26 FE. Much of the hardware sounds frustratingly familiar, while the design is unsurprisingly getting minimal changes. Now, a couple of hands-on videos have finally shown something I’m considerably more interested in.

Two apparent Galaxy S26 FE units have appeared in real-world videos, including footage shared by TikTok account @_samz02 and another clip reposted on X by Bradley, or @VerdeSelvans. Both show a purple or violet phone carrying Samsung’s newer S26-style camera island, and more importantly, Horizontal Lock appears inside the camera app.