Survey reveals people are deeply split over Android's Material 3 Expressive design

We recently uncovered Google’s work on a major visual overhaul of Android. The company is giving Android a fresh coat of paint using the Material 3 Expressive design language.

This overhaul entails copious use of blurred backgrounds, a tweaked notification shade/quick settings panel, and plenty of smaller tweaks. We wondered what readers thought about these changes and posted a poll in our related articles. Here’s what you told us.

What do you think of Android’s upcoming UI overhaul?

Over 7,000 votes were counted in this poll, and 34.4% of surveyed Android Authority readers said they loved this change.

Oddly enough, only a few comments wholeheartedly praised these changes, such as this one from Mossien Awadh:

I love it! I think it looks very refreshing and modern and sorta catches up with the competition but in Google’s very own way 👍

Reader jon95kent also declared his love for the new look:

I love it! This is the change we’ve been awaiting since Android 13. Finally, AOSP and Pixels are gonna look as polished as literally every other Android skin out there (and a bit like iOS too which I don’t mind at all)

User itsjuger had mostly positive things to say about this overhaul too:

I like most of the changes. I’m an advocate for stock Android, it’s clean and gives you the raw experience of Android. However, I personally am not the biggest fan (of) Material UI. I understand the want for simplicity and minimalism, but sometimes I do miss the Aero theme like on Vista and Windows 7. I think it would be a nice change-up from the current Android skin, but I do think their implementation can still be improved. I think this is a good step moving forward to a newer and *clearer* UI.

In second place, with 26% of the vote, was “Android could use a new look, but I’m not convinced that this is it.” This was followed by 20.09% of polled readers saying the overhaul was a great start but that they wanted even more changes. Finally, 19.49% of surveyed users felt that none of these changes felt necessary and that Google should’ve maintained the current design.

The biggest issues with Android’s new look, according to readers

One notable design choice that was repeatedly criticized by users was Google’s tweaked sliders. User perrigo.michael was one of these readers:

Hideous. They move away from the rounded pill shaped sliders to more sliders from the early 2000s?

Reader rayvenniunda also felt this was a step in the wrong direction:

Damn, most of those changes are ugly af (sic). Especially those new sliders. Most don’t have a usability benefit either, things seem to use more space and therefore keep getting further away from the reachable area. Glad I’m on HyperOS.

We also saw plenty of comments from readers who hated the blur effects, drawing comparisons to iOS, Windows Vista, and some Chinese Android skins.

“Since when has blur been a part of Material Design? Especially m3? They’re making their own design inconsistent just to follow the trend,” wrote user ramansg.deep.

“Please don’t let this be true!! Seriously hate these changes especially the quick settings, notifications panel, app drawer, and recent apps. All that blur is so freaking ugly and kinda defeats the purpose of dark mode,” added user ecmerritt04.

Nevertheless, a few readers complimented this blurred look, so it hasn’t received a totally negative reaction.

Some users took issue with the new status bar icons, such as reader keitan924111:

The status bar change is just garbage, but everything else is good. Beautiful look, nice change.

It’s clear that a significant number of polled readers don’t like these design changes. However, a slim majority of respondents (~54%) either love it or think it’s a great start.