Material Design Components for Android 1.7.0

Posted by James Williams, Developer Relations Engineer

The latest releases of Material Design Components (MDC) - 1.7.0 brings updates to Material You styling, accessibility and size coherence and new minimum version requirements

MDC 1.7.0 has new minimum version requirements:

  • Java 8 (1.8), previously Java 7 (1.7)
  • Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 7.3.3, previously 4.0.0
  • Android Studio Chipmunk, version 2021.2.1, and
  • compileSdkVersion / targetSdkVersion 32

This is a fairly large jump in terms of the Gradle plugin version, so make sure to secure changes in your build files first before moving on to UI code. As always, our release notes contain the full details of what has been updated. There are a couple standout updates we’d like to highlight.

MaterialSwitch component

The Switch component has undergone a visual refresh that increases contrast and accessibility. The MaterialSwitch class replaces the previous SwitchMaterial class.

It now differentiates between the on and off states more by making the “on” thumb larger and able to contain an icon in addition to an on state color. The “off” state has a smaller thumb with less contrast.

Much of the new component’s core API aligns with the obsolete SwitchMaterial class so to get started, you can simply replace the class references.

For more information on how the obsolete component stacks against the new implementation, check the documentation on GitHub.

Shape Theming

A component’s shape is one way to express your brand. In addition to providing a custom MaterialShapeDrawable, there is also a means to more simply customize shape theming using rounded or cut corners.

Material 3 components have been updated to apply one of the seven styles ranging from None to Full. A component’s shape is defined by two properties: its Shape family, either rounded or cut, and its value, usually described in dp. Where a “none” style always results in a rectangular shape, the resulting shape for full depends on the shape family. Rounded returns a rectangle with fully rounded edges, while Cut returns a hexagonal shape.

You are able to set the shape family and value individually and arbitrarily on each edge but there are set intervals and baseline values.

Shape StyleValue
None0dp
Extra Small

4dp
Small8dp
Medium12dp

Large16dp
Extra Large

28dp
FullN/A


The Shape Theming card in the Catalog app allows you to see how different values affect rounded or cut corners.

What's next for MDC

We’re fast at work on the next major version of MDC. You can follow the progress, file bug reports and feature requests on GitHub. Also feel free to reach out to us on Twitter @materialdesign.

Beta Channel Update for Desktop

 The Beta channel has been updated to 107.0.5304.62 for Windows,Mac and Linux.

A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issues, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Prudhvikumar Bommana Google Chrome

Beta Channel Update for Desktop

 The Beta channel has been updated to 107.0.5304.62 for Windows,Mac and Linux.

A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issues, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Prudhvikumar Bommana Google Chrome

Beta Channel Update for Desktop

 The Beta channel has been updated to 107.0.5304.62 for Windows,Mac and Linux.

A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issues, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Prudhvikumar Bommana Google Chrome

Beta Channel Update for Desktop

 The Beta channel has been updated to 107.0.5304.62 for Windows,Mac and Linux.

A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issues, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Prudhvikumar Bommana Google Chrome

Preserving one of Nigeria’s last sacred groves

On the forested banks of the Osun river in Osogbo, Nigeria lies one of the last cultural sites of its kind. In this sacred grove, Yoruba deities are embodied in shapely, sculpted shrines and creativity and spirituality come to life. The Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove is a truly unique and special place.

I’m truly delighted that, for the first time ever, the shrine and its surroundings have been digitized thanks to a collaboration between CyArk, Adunni Olorisa Trust/Osun Foundation and Google Arts & Culture. Now both are protected for posterity, so anybody from anywhere can explore them.

I said when I visited in 2019 that it was important to refocus national and global attention on this site, and I’m glad we achieved our purpose. For even though this place of active worship and art is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and priceless cultural asset, it is in danger of destruction. Flooding and heavy rain due to climate change, along with a number of other risks to conservation, threaten the groves’ survival.

This is why CyArk and the Adunni Olorisha Trust / Osun Foundation partnered with Google Arts & Culture to digitize the shrines and surroundings at Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove – and to tell the stories of its spiritual, artistic and cultural significance. In 2019, the grove’s Busanyin Shrine was wrecked in a flood; the 3D imagery captured in the early phases of the project were among the last images to be taken of the site before it was destroyed. So while this project may not stop the impact of flooding or the activities of land grabbers, it will ensure that future generations can see it as it is today.

  • GIF showing the busanyin shrine in 3D

    The Busanyin shrine in 3D

  • Image showing Flooding at Busanyin shrine

    Flooding at Busanyin shrine © CyArk

  • Image showing a woman, Dr. Ijeoma, adjusting the total station at Busanyin shrine c. CyArk

    Dr. Ijeoma uses digitization equipment at Busanyin shrine © CyArk

  • Image showing the priest of Osun on the banks of a river performing a blessing for Jumoke Sanwo

    The priest of Osun performs a blessing for Jumoke Sanwo on the banks of the Osun river. © CyArk

  • Image showing Artist Artist Adebisi Akanji, at work sculpting

    Artist Adebisi Akanji c. Adunni Olorisha Trust. © Osun Foundation

According to Kacey Hadick, CyArk Director of Programs and Development, “CyArk's work in Osogbo has been a true collaboration between Nigerian government officials, local NGOs, the community of Osogbo and His royal highness Jimoh Oyetunji Olanipekun Larooye II, who have partnered with CyArk and are working together to share the stories of Osogbo with a wider audience.”

Although the 2019 flood was a devastating loss, it reinforces the importance of using a variety of tools to preserve the world’s cultural and spiritual places, from digital documentation to on-site restoration work. And this project highlights the broad spectrum of preservation that, in this case, can help protect a rich Yoruba cultural heritage – through 3D models, Street View, archival and contemporary photographs, video and audio interviews and written stories.

Olufemi A. Akinsanya Akinsanya is Chair of the Save Our Art! Save Our Heritage! Campaign. He says, “We want to expose the world to this incredible Yoruba heritage and art treasure, introduce the remarkable artists of the New Sacred Art Movement who saved it from destruction in the 1960’s and champion the next generation who are preserving it now.”

While a virtual experience of the site can never replace the real thing, we invite you to get lost in the Sacred Grove of Osun Osogbo and experience its art, culture, and preservation like never before on Google Arts & Culture.

This work forms part of the Google Arts & Culture Heritage on the Edge project, which tells of how people around the world are using technology to help protect cultural sites against the effects of climate change.

Google Arts & Culture and CyArk have collaborated with cultural heritage site managers to carry out similar digitization training sessions. Learn more about the stories of five other cultural sites impacted by climate change in Scotland, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Peru and Rapa Nui.

Your ads, your choice

Online advertising doesn’t need to be confusing or out of your control. Whether you’re watching tutorials on YouTube or looking up recipes on Search, you should have a say in the ads you see online.

That’s why today, My Ad Center will start rolling out to users around the world to help you control the kinds of ads you see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover. You’ll also be able to block sensitive ads and learn more about the information used to personalize your ad experience.

Ads about the things you care about

My Ad Center was designed to give you more control over your ad experience on Google’s sites and apps. When you’re signed into Google, you can access My Ad Center directly from ads on Search, YouTube and Discover, and choose to see more of the brands and topics you like and less of the ones you don’t. You will never have to spend time searching for the right control or decoding how your information is used. Instead, you can manage your ad preferences without interrupting what you’re doing online.

Imagine you spent months researching your latest beach trip, and now that you're back, you don’t want to see vacation ads. With My Ad Center, you can just tap on the three-dot menu next to a vacation ad and choose to see less of those types of ads. You can also choose to see ads about things that you care about, like deals for sneakers or holiday gifts for your loved ones.

Mock phone screen of YouTube search results with ads. Mock shows a users tapping on the three-dot menu next to an ad to access My Ad Center

On YouTube, you can tap on the three-dot menu next to an ad to access My Ad Center and choose the topics and brands you want to see more or less of.

You can also turn off ads personalization completely. My Ad Center makes this control easy to find by putting it front-and-center in the product. If you choose not to see personalized ads, you’ll still see ads, but you may find them less relevant or useful. This will apply anywhere you’re signed in with your Google Account.

There also may be certain ad topics that you don’t want to engage with at all. With My Ad Center, you can choose to limit ads related to topics such as alcohol, dating, weight loss, gambling, pregnancy and parenting.

Mock phone screen of My Ad Center that shows the “Customize Ads” section

In My Ad Center, you can tap on “Customize Ads” to choose the topics and brands you want to see more or less of.

Ad controls that put your privacy first

We follow a set of core privacy principles that guide what information we do and don’t collect. We never sell your personal information to anyone, and we never use the content you store in apps like Gmail, Photos and Drive for ads purposes. And we never use sensitive information to personalize ads — like health, race, religion or sexual orientation. It’s simply off limits.

My Ad Center builds on those commitments by giving you the ability to control what information is used to personalize the ads you see. And if you’re not sure what you’re sharing, it’s easy to quickly see what information we use, and control it based on your preferences.

You can decide what types of your activity are used to make Google products work for you — independent of the ads you're shown. In the past, if your YouTube History was on, it automatically informed how your ads were personalized. Now, if you don’t want your YouTube History to be used for ads personalization, you can turn it off in My Ad Center, without impacting relevant recommendations in your feed.

You may also see ads meant for certain audiences based on your Google activity – categories such as education, relationship status or the industry you work in. Now you’ll be able to choose and adjust how categories inform your ads, or turn them off completely. This way, you can more easily choose the ad experience that’s right for you.

Mock phone screens of My Ad Center that show a screen where you can choose to turn on or off YouTube History for ads personalization.

You can turn on or off YouTube History for ads personalization.

Ad controls beyond Google

Finally, there are times you may see ads from businesses which use Google tools to advertise on other sites and apps. The option to turn off personalized ads in My Ad Center applies to ads you see on and off Google, and will automatically apply on any device where you’re signed in to your Google account. If you’re not signed into Google, you can still control your preferences in Ad Settings.

It’s our responsibility to strengthen the ways we keep you in control of your ad experiences, while ensuring that every day, people are safer with Google. To learn more about our commitment to privacy, you can visit our Safety Center.

Get more visual results when you shop on desktop

Shopping is about so much more than just buying — it’s also about browsing, researching and narrowing down your options to get the right product at the right price. It’s easy to take each of these steps on Google, thanks to our AI-enhanced Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph now understands more than 35 billion product listings and can quickly organize shopping information online — making it much easier and more intuitive to find what you're looking for.

Last month we announced several new features coming to Google, including more visual ways to shop on mobile. And now, in the U.S., we’re bringing you a more visual shopping experience on desktop.

An animation of the search “shop ceramic vase” on desktop shows a more visual shopping results page, including product listings, articles with featured imagery and stores near you. The animation also clicks into the product listing of a ceramic vase shaped like a strawberry, which then opens a sidebar on the right hand side showing different merchants the product is available from and product reviews.

Whether you’re looking for clothes, electronics, beauty products or home goods on desktop, you’ll see a more visual feed of shopping results that includes products, brands, articles and videos from across the web. New dynamic filters will also help you refine your search to find something specific. So if you’re shopping for a new coffee maker on desktop, you can search “shop coffee makers” and filter by type, brand, retailer, nearby or on sale to find the best option. Our results and filters are dynamic so they'll update to show you the freshest content.

A search bar shows searches for “shop plant stands,” “shop mid century modern chairs” and “shop coffee makers.” Each search shows a page of shopping results with visuals of product listings.

You can also read up on products without interrupting your search. Just click a product to instantly see more details about it — like offers from different merchants and reviews — all without leaving your Search results page. Once you’ve found something you want, just click to go to the retailer’s site.

Check out this new shopping experience on desktop today to quickly find what you need — or discover your next dream purchase.

Source: Search


Get more visual results when you shop on desktop

Shopping is about so much more than just buying — it’s also about browsing, researching and narrowing down your options to get the right product at the right price. It’s easy to take each of these steps on Google, thanks to our AI-enhanced Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph now understands more than 35 billion product listings and can quickly organize shopping information online — making it much easier and more intuitive to find what you're looking for.

Last month we announced several new features coming to Google, including more visual ways to shop on mobile. And now, in the U.S., we’re bringing you a more visual shopping experience on desktop.

An animation of the search “shop ceramic vase” on desktop shows a more visual shopping results page, including product listings, articles with featured imagery and stores near you. The animation also clicks into the product listing of a ceramic vase shaped like a strawberry, which then opens a sidebar on the right hand side showing different merchants the product is available from and product reviews.

Whether you’re looking for clothes, electronics, beauty products or home goods on desktop, you’ll see a more visual feed of shopping results that includes products, brands, articles and videos from across the web. New dynamic filters will also help you refine your search to find something specific. So if you’re shopping for a new coffee maker on desktop, you can search “shop coffee makers” and filter by type, brand, retailer, nearby or on sale to find the best option. Our results and filters are dynamic so they'll update to show you the freshest content.

A search bar shows searches for “shop plant stands,” “shop mid century modern chairs” and “shop coffee makers.” Each search shows a page of shopping results with visuals of product listings.

You can also read up on products without interrupting your search. Just click a product to instantly see more details about it — like offers from different merchants and reviews — all without leaving your Search results page. Once you’ve found something you want, just click to go to the retailer’s site.

Check out this new shopping experience on desktop today to quickly find what you need — or discover your next dream purchase.

Source: Search


Get more visual results when you shop on desktop

Shopping is about so much more than just buying — it’s also about browsing, researching and narrowing down your options to get the right product at the right price. It’s easy to take each of these steps on Google, thanks to our AI-enhanced Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph now understands more than 35 billion product listings and can quickly organize shopping information online — making it much easier and more intuitive to find what you're looking for.

Last month we announced several new features coming to Google, including more visual ways to shop on mobile. And now, in the U.S., we’re bringing you a more visual shopping experience on desktop.

An animation of the search “shop ceramic vase” on desktop shows a more visual shopping results page, including product listings, articles with featured imagery and stores near you. The animation also clicks into the product listing of a ceramic vase shaped like a strawberry, which then opens a sidebar on the right hand side showing different merchants the product is available from and product reviews.

Whether you’re looking for clothes, electronics, beauty products or home goods on desktop, you’ll see a more visual feed of shopping results that includes products, brands, articles and videos from across the web. New dynamic filters will also help you refine your search to find something specific. So if you’re shopping for a new coffee maker on desktop, you can search “shop coffee makers” and filter by type, brand, retailer, nearby or on sale to find the best option. Our results and filters are dynamic so they'll update to show you the freshest content.

A search bar shows searches for “shop plant stands,” “shop mid century modern chairs” and “shop coffee makers.” Each search shows a page of shopping results with visuals of product listings.

You can also read up on products without interrupting your search. Just click a product to instantly see more details about it — like offers from different merchants and reviews — all without leaving your Search results page. Once you’ve found something you want, just click to go to the retailer’s site.

Check out this new shopping experience on desktop today to quickly find what you need — or discover your next dream purchase.

Source: Search