When Google introduced Android 12 last year, one of the biggest changes was the introduction of a new Material You design language that, among other things, allowed you to adjust the color scheme of the operating system just by picking a wallpaper and then choosing a related color palette automatically generated based on the colors in that wallpaper.
But that dynamic color feature was largely confined to Google’s own Pixel phones at launch. Now Google says it’s coming soon to more phones running Android 12 including models from Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, Xiaomi, and Tecno.
Google says it’s working with those phone makers and others to make sure that “key design APIs” including the ones responsible for the dynamic color features work properly even on phones that are running custom skins rather than stock Android.
The announcement comes a few days after a report from Android Police indicated Google would begin making Material You and dynamic theming a requirement starting in mid-March. Basically any phone maker that wants to use Google Mobile Services will need to adopt Material You and Google’s dynamic theming features.
Theoretically phone makers could still choose to ship Android 12 devices that don’t support dynamic theming, but then they wouldn’t be able to include some of Google’s key apps including the Google Play Store, Gmail, Chrome, and Google Maps. So it’s likely that most Android phones will support the feature moving forward.
You can find more details about Google’s Material You design language and dynamic color at the Material blog.
Once again, something no one asked for and has no benefit. Just countless hours of designing, coding and testing effort going into this ” feature “.