Summary

  • The Material 3 Expressive redesign is starting to roll out across Google’s ecosystem, appearing in the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta and various key apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Photos.
  • Google Chrome for Android is also getting expressive updates, with tab group colors now applying to the entire card in Chrome Canary, making them easier to distinguish.
  • These Chrome design changes, including updated icons in the overflow menu, are expected to become available to all users in the stable version of Chrome 139 by late July.

Signs of Google’s Material 3 Expressive redesign are starting to appear across the tech giant’s latest operating system and across its key apps.

For those unaware, the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta unlocks the expressive redesign at the OS-level. Google’s own apps, on the other hand, are already experimenting with the redesign, and expressive elements are starting to show in apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Messages, Google Photos, and more.

Google Photos

Most of the tech giant’s core apps are expected to be privy to the redesign, and with new information about Chrome just coming out, the tech giant seemingly has most of its bases covered.

As highlighted by browser expert @Leopeva64 on X (Twitter), expressive Material 3 design elements are now starting to appear in Chrome Canary, and we know that said changes will go live late next month.

Differentiate between tab groups at a quick glance

Currently, when you create a new tab group, you’re given the option to name the group and assign a color to it. The color shows up as a tiny dot on the top left of the tab group. Via a new flag (Android tab groups color update), said colors now apply to the entire group card, making it easy to discern groups at a quick glance.

This change is live for me with the relevant flag enabled.

Screenshots highlighting Chrome's upcoming colored tab groups.

Leopeva64 also highlighted that the tab group naming menu should show available colors as pills instead of dots, but that doesn’t seem to be live for me just yet. Canary is currently on Chrome 139, which is scheduled to go stable on July 30.

Elsewhere, another patch, which reportedly applies “Material 3 expressive theme overlay style” to icons in Chrome’s overflow menu, was merged earlier this week. Said icon changes should also make their way to users in Chrome stable late in July.