Android 14 has brought in a new technique to increase the contrast in your Material You. You should choose a theme to make things simpler to see and read. In other words, a Material You contrast tweak slider.
How the Material You contrast tweak slider came to be
With the Material You revamp, Google’s operating system takes on a much more colorful appearance beginning with Android 12. Android can automatically build a full Material You color scheme for your phone based on the colors of your current wallpaper, theming key elements of Android itself, several Google applications, and even some third-party apps.
Its automated theme uses color science to provide enough contrast between the various elements on your screen. For example, if you place light-gray writing on a white backdrop, it will be difficult to read.
Most users are satisfied with the color choices made by Android and Material. There is enough contrast to differentiate between cards, icons, text, and other elements. People’s eyesight deteriorates over time, and it becomes necessary to have a bit more visual contrast to stay productive.
To that aim, it appears Google plans to make Material You themes more available in Android 14. If you open the Settings app and tap “Color and motion,” you’ll see a new slider named “Contrast Level” – the Material You contrast tweak slider -in the current Development Preview.
Surprisingly, the Material You contrast tweak slider has little effect on the design or colors of Android itself, since increasing the contrast to the medium or maximum levels results in no discernible changes. Yet, as demonstrated below in Google’s Material Design Catalog sample app, select applications created for Android 14 respect the enhanced contrast levels.
At first glance, it may appear that just some colors are changing, such as the shade used for the items now selected, but upon closer investigation, quite a few colors are altered with each selection. Virtually everything, from text colors to background hues to accents and selects, has a somewhat distinct tint.
Now, you have three color contrast settings for Material You: “Standard” (the default appearance), “High” (much more contrast), and a midway option that divides the difference. Nevertheless, the middle choice looks to be broken for the time being, as certain areas of Material You wind up being the same hue.
Android 14‘s Material You contrast tweak slider is a great addition that demonstrates the power and utility of Material You. Because the contrast is changing at the Material You level, all apps that properly implement Material You will benefit instantly from enhanced accessibility.
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