Summary
- Android 17 is moving away from solid blocks of color toward a translucent, blurry look, likely inspired by Apple’s “Liquid Glass” style.
- Early leaks show this effect applied to the volume sliders and power menu, allowing the background app or wallpaper to remain partially visible.
After more than a decade of flat, solid blocks of color, Android may be on the verge of yet another major design shift. According to a growing number of reports and leaks, a translucent, blurry look is coming with Android 17—and we have our first look at it.
Material Design made its debut in 2014, but the Material Design we see today is quite different. Google has been slowly shifting away from the original style, and that was most apparent last year with the Material 3 Expressive update. Android 17 appears to be building on that with even more translucency and blurring. Unsurprisingly, many are calling this new direction a response to Apple’s Liquid Glass aesthetic.
First, it was reported by 9to5Google that internal builds show a translucent effect in certain areas of the UI. Namely, the floating volume bar slider and the expanded volume menu. Soon thereafter, screenshots of those very UI elements were posted (and quickly removed) on Telegram. However, Telegram user @romashka (among others) posted their own screenshots (second image). I’ve taken some screenshots of Android 16 on my Pixel 10 (first image) for comparison.
On the volume slider, we can see that the solid pill now has translucency, which allows your home screen or the app you’re using to remain slightly visible behind it. The same change can be seen in the expanded volume menu and the power menu. As before, colors are still pulled from your wallpaper or the custom theme color you’ve chosen. The level of transparency is not nearly as much as Liquid Glass, but that’s why it actually looks nice.
We should get a much better look at these changes when Android 17 starts rolling out on the Canary release channel in the coming months. Android 16 stable was released only last June, so we’re still a long way out from Android beta builds and the final stable launch.
Source: Android Authority
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