Google Search is testing dynamic color themes for image results, but it’s not exactly Material You

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Using Monet to derive the colors from the results themselves

Material You and its dynamic coloring engine (nicknamed “Monet”) are still very new to Android and app designers, and as such, a lot of experimentation is underway. Although most of Google’s apps derive their colors from your wallpaper on Android 12, the theme engine can also be used for different purposes. The Google Search Image Viewer could become one of these examples. 9to5Google has identified an a / b test that leverages Monet’s theme engine, deriving the colors from the result of the currently displayed image rather than the phone’s wallpaper.

The new Monet-based theme comes with a pretty scrambled interface for image search results, but the gist is that the collection of related images and all the other UI elements below the previewed result are drenched in a color derived from it, with different levels of brightness creating boxes and buttons. This makes the connection between the top image and the rest of the page more obvious for every photo you view.

ANDROID VIDEO POLICE OF THE DAY Image gallery (3 images) Screenshot via 9to5Google Screenshot via 9to5Google

Other noteworthy changes to the image results include a more prominent Google Lens button in the lower left corner, the website name and thumbnail in the upper left corner, and a change that puts related images into a horizontally scrolling carousel instead of a normal scrolling view.

Unfortunately, we only have eyes on what this dark mode theme looks like in the Google app. Presumably, the Monet-based interface will also arrive on the mobile website and the light mode of the Google app. It could even make it to the desktop version, which would be among the first big-screen implementations of Monet we’ve seen so far.

The Google Search approach reminds us a lot of YouTube’s experiments with dynamic coloring, with the app soaking the backgrounds of some results in the colors found in their thumbnails. While the derivation of colors from the phone’s wallpaper might make sense for static and more important UI elements like the search field or bottom bar, this context-based coloring could look incredibly smooth in apps that work with lots of images and different miniatures.

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About the author Manuel Vonau (1578 articles published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he’s not writing articles for Android Police, he’s probably around as a videographer.

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