Google Chrome is Finally Getting Material You Style Dynamic Themes
At a previous Google I/O, the company introduced a common design language for Android, called Material You. It even had features like Dynamic color, which automatically adjusted the phone’s color scheme to match with the wallpaper. Now, something similar might be coming to Google Chrome.
Spotted by Reddit user u/Leopeva64-2 on a commit pipeline for upcoming Google Chrome changes, the ‘Customize Chrome Color Extraction’ feature is finally available in the latest canary build of Google Chrome (version 110).
Dynamic color plays a key role in Material You, creating individualized and expressive experiences for your users and opening up new possibilities for the role of color in your app.
With dynamic color, custom palettes that emphasize expression and accessibility are algorithmically generated based on your brand or—starting with Pixel—an individual’s wallpaper. These colors can manifest as dynamic light and dark themes, and can be adjusted based on preference.
The feature is pretty self-explanatory, as it essentially picks a color theme for Chrome based on the wallpaper applied on the new tab. According to Google’s release notes, the feature is available in Mac, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, Fuchsia and Lacros.
With this release, there’s also option for a more comprehensive theming option under the “chrome://flags/#ntp-comprehensive-theming” flag. Enabling this extends the theming to the search bar and even the under-development cards.
If you want to try out the feature, you can ideally wait for it to make its way to the official Chrome build. Otherwise, you can download the latest version of the Canary build of Google Chrome. As the feature isn’t enabled by default, you need to manually enable the feature flag by visiting – “chrome://flags/#customize-chrome-color-extraction.”
The feature still needs to be fleshed out. According to Android Police, the interface still lacks a toggle that lets users switch between custom themes and self-selected themes. To use a different color again for the address bar and tab without any hiccups, users need to turn off the feature flag.
