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:
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.
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.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.
For years, Samsung’s Galaxy A phones have been some of the easiest recommendations for anyone who wants to go the Android route without paying flagship prices. But that part of the lineup could soon become harder to find at a good price.
According to South Korea’s Electronic Times, Samsung is cutting Galaxy A production by about 20% in the fourth quarter compared to its original plans. Component orders have reportedly dropped by a similar amount, which could mean roughly 10 million fewer phones over the year. Samsung is also said to be considering another production cut of more than 10% next year.