Android 16’s Material 3 Expressive redesign aims to give interfaces a bit more personality to make them feel more intuitive and engaging. A big focus is making smartwatch UIs actually work with round screens, like curved buttons that wrap neatly around the edges instead of awkwardly ignoring them.
Google’s been quietly sneaking in redesigns across its Wear OS apps. Last month, Maps, Gmail, and Keep got their fresh looks. Then the Phone app followed suit earlier this month. Now it’s Google Messages’ turn to play dress-up with this whole “expressive” design trend on Wear OS.
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‘Expressive’ look on your smartwatch
As spotted by 9to5Google, the Messages redesign on Wear OS doesn’t shake things up too much, with the homescreen still looking basically unchanged. The real change shows up when you start a new chat: the dialer now wraps numbers in pill-shaped bubbles.
Conversation elements are now in pill-shaped containers
The conversation view in Messages for Wear OS is getting a bit of a cleanup too. Emoji, mic, and keyboard buttons now sit in pill-shaped bubbles inside their own tidy container. Smart replies like “Yes,” “No,” and “OK” are grouped together for quicker taps. And actions like “Call,” “View people,” or “Delete conversation” each get their own pill-shaped button, making things way less cluttered.
Google Messages on Wear OS is trying out a new take on read receipts, with checkmarks now sitting inside little circles. It’s a tiny change, but one that hasn’t shown up on the phone app yet. So, for once, your beloved Wear OS watches get to feel a little ahead of the curve.
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The M3 Expressive redesign is currently showing up in the beta version of Google Messages for Wear OS. Strangely enough, Google seems to have pulled the same redesign from the phone version for now, at least, as per 9to5. Nevertheless, the update brings punchier colors, smoother animations, and layouts that actually make sense on a round screen.