Google to introduce Material You on Chrome Canary for desktop

Android 12 was a significant Android update in comparison with others due to its offering of Material You design. The support for dynamic theming was initially introduced through Google apps that is followed by several third-party apps. Google is now bringing Material You theming to Chrome canary.

Material Design components like card-style menus and rounded edges were quickly adopted by desktop programs like Chrome for desktop, but dynamic theming has just recently begun to appear. Late in April, the desktop version of Chrome Canary began theming menu item text and icons to match the color of the active browser theme. To retain contrast and legibility, Google utilized a very light pastel tint for the text, which made the alteration hardly perceptible.

Google is enhancing dynamic theming for desktop users in Chrome Canary

Currently, the browser is extending dynamic theming to more UI elements, such as menus, dialogue boxes, bubbles, tooltips, and hover cards, according to reputable Chrome feature spotter @Leopeva64 on Twitter. This is a highly overt alteration because the theming engine chooses a dark color for the backgrounds and lighter colors for other items like progress bars. The typical Chrome user who is sick of grey menus can’t possibly click past without exclaiming, “Wow!”

According to Leopeva, this modification is a part of Google’s massive 2023 Chrome update, which is described in the Chromium Gerrit entry. However, throughout our testing, dynamic menu theming was not seen. We attempted toggling the relevant Chrome 2023 refresh flag without success.

Leopeva notes that if you choose to use Chrome without a theme, you could find that menus and bubbles in dark mode have deeper background colors than before, making bright writing on them easier to see. When Chrome 116 is released to stable, hopefully dynamic theming will play a significant role. Chrome 114 and 115 betas, however, have a ton of new features to keep you interested in the interim.