Google's fresh, reimagined design for Google Calendar based on Material 3 begins its release
Google Calendar Gets a Material 3 Expressive Makeover
Google Calendar for Android has undergone a visual refresh with the introduction of the Material 3 Expressive redesign. The update, which began rolling out in early August 2025 with version 2025.30.x, aims to enhance aesthetics and improve readability without major changes to user experience.
Key features of the redesign include:
- Month View: Individual dates are now enclosed in rounded rectangular containers, creating a "card-like" look that aligns with the tactile "Material You" style. This visual change creates an optical effect known as the Hermann grid illusion, where faint gray dots appear at the intersections of the date boxes.
- Dynamic Color Scheme: The update introduces solid background blocks aligned with the user’s system theme color in all views, replacing previous faint lines and grids. This change provides a contrast boost for improved readability, particularly in the Week and Day views, but may make the app feel visually heavier.
- Day and Week Views: Time slots (hours and days) now have their own rounded containers, replacing previous thin dividing lines. The background uses the primary Dynamic Color drawn from the device wallpaper for theme coherence.
- Unchanged Elements: Despite these visual enhancements, event creation screens, event details, and settings remain mostly unchanged, indicating that the update is focused on surface-level design consistency rather than interaction redesign.
The redesign is part of Google's broader Material 3 Expressive rollout affecting several apps (Google Contacts, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet), all featuring use of containers, rounded shapes, and Dynamic Color usage.
The rollout is slow and server-driven, meaning changes appear progressively on users’ devices rather than all at once. Some users may not have seen the redesign yet.
In addition, Google Calendar has released a simple Apple Watch app, but the rollout of the redesign is not yet widely available. The redesign is now going live on more devices following Keep.
In summary, Google Calendar’s Material 3 Expressive redesign updates its look with rounded date containers, Dynamic Color backgrounds, improved contrast, and containers for time slots, aligning with Material You principles but without overhauling functionality.
- As Google Calendar transitions to the Material 3 Expressive design, smartphones users may notice that their gadgets now display calendar entries enclosed in rounded rectangular containers, mimicking a more tactile "Material You" style.
- The redesign of Google Calendar, part of Google's broader Material update, not only introduces a dynamic color scheme on smartphones but also extends to several technology-based applications, including Google Contacts, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet.
