Flutter is a popular open-source mobile application development framework that allows developers to create beautiful and fast applications for multiple platforms with a single codebase. One of the key features of Flutter is its use of "Widgets" to build user interfaces.
Material Design is a design language developed by Google that aims to create a unified user experience across all devices and platforms. Flutter offers built-in support for Material Design through the "Material" widget library. Google announced Material Design on June 25, 2014, at the 2014 Google I/O conference.
Material Design 2 (Google Material Theme)
After the 2018 revamp, Google began redesigning most of their apps into a customized and adapted version of Material Design called the Google Material Theme, also dubbed "Material Design 2", which heavily emphasizes white space, rounded corners, colorful icons, bottom navigation bars, and utilizes a special size-optimized version of Google's proprietary Product Sans font called Google Sans.
Material Design 3 (Material You)
At Google I/O in May 2021, Google announced a new concept on Android 12 known as "Material You" (also known as "Material Design 3"), emphasizing increased animation, larger buttons, and the ability for custom UI themes to be generated from the user's wallpaper. Material You was gradually rolled out to various Google apps on older Android versions in the following months, and acted as a major focus on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphone series. Read more here
In Flutter, the Material 3 design system is implemented through the "material3" package. This package includes a set of new widgets, components, and design patterns that make it easy to create beautiful and accessible user interfaces that follow the Material 3 guidelines. Read more here
Some of the key features of Material 3 in Flutter include a new color system that offers more shades and tints for designers to work with, an updated typography system that includes more font weights and styles, and new components like the "Chip" and "Stack" widgets.
Another major focus of Material 3 is accessibility. The design system includes new guidelines for creating accessible user interfaces, as well as new components like the "Switch" and "Slider" widgets that make it easier for users with disabilities to interact with applications.
How to use material 3 in Flutter
Flutter is in the process of migrating to Material 3.
Note: A few facts about Material 3 (M3)
Most Flutter widgets are already migrated to M3, but you can follow progress on the Material 3 Flutter GitHub project and the GitHub umbrella issue.
You can opt in to Material 3 using the useMaterial3 flag. However, your UI might be inconsistent until all of Flutter and your code are migrated.
For the latest list of Flutter’s widgets that are affected by the useMaterial3 flag, see Affected widgets.
The vast majority of Flutter widgets have similar behavior in M2 and M3, so those widget names are unchanged. However, a couple widgets have substantially different behavior in M3, so new widgets have been created.
Once migration is complete, Material 3 will become the Material library’s default look and feel.
Support for Material 2 will eventually be removed according to Flutter’s deprecation policy.
Overall, Material 3 is a significant update to the Material Design system, and its implementation in Flutter offers developers a powerful tool for creating beautiful and accessible user interfaces for their applications. By following the Material 3 guidelines and using the new widgets and components provided by the "material3" package, developers can ensure that their applications offer a consistent and enjoyable experience for all users.
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