Material You is one of Android’s great recent features. Introduced with Android 12, it automatically adjusts your smartphone’s UI elements based on your chosen wallpaper. If the image is predominantly green and black, for example, UI elements will update to match those colors. It’s a simple idea, but an effective one, making your phone’s design elements feel cohesive.
App icons are obviously a part of Android’s UI, and, subsequently, they change based on your wallpaper as well. However, with Android 12, only specific apps were compatible with the feature, and it varied based on your phone. If you had a Pixel running Android 12, for example, only Google apps could change alongside the system theme. Gmail and YouTube would visually sync with your wallpaper, which only made every other app stand out more. Samsung users faced the same issue on Galaxy devices.
Design purists, obsess no longer: With Android 13, Google has finally expanded support for Material You app icons to third-party apps. As long as your favorite apps support Material You and the feature is enabled in your Settings app, you’ll see the icons adjust to fit your wallpaper and system theme.
9to5Google’s Ben Schoon has a running list of supported apps, which includes highlights like Telegram, WhatsApp, Reddit, Signal, LinkedIn, and Bitwarden. Here’s where the list current stands:
According to 9to5Google, almost all Google apps support Material You at this time. Notable exceptions currently include Stadia, Play Games, and YouTube Studio.
Android 13 is pretty new, and not yet available on many devices. As developers work with the new software, and as it hits more smartphones, it’s likely this list will expand (if not explode) with compatible apps—we’re still missing plenty of big players, including Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Netflix, and Spotify.
Note that Android 13 is still in beta testing on Samsung devices as One UI 5.0, so Galaxy users currently can’t enjoy third-party Material You app icons. And while most Samsung apps are currently supported, no Google apps are.
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How to enable Material You app icons
If you’re not seeing these apps change with on your wallpaper and you’re sure you’ve upgraded them to versions optimized for Android 13, you’ll need to enable the feature: open Settings -> Wallpaper and style and turnon “Themed icons.” Return to the home screen, and your compatible icons should automatically update.
