How to activate Android 12’s ‘Material You’ dynamic theme early

Android 12, Google’s next big smartphone update, has a heavy design focus. The main one of these objectives is “Material You», A new design language that merges simple and attractive graphics with color themes that can be generated from your phone’s wallpaper. You can try out the new Material You design with Chrome, if you’re up for a bit of tinkering.

You will need to run the beta version of Android 12

To try the feature now, you need to be using a device running Android 12 beta, as Android 12 actually scans your smartphone’s wallpaper to inform the system UI color scheme. Buttons, backgrounds, menus and more are included in this feature; now Chrome is too.

To be clear, Android 12 is not yet available as an official version. The software is currently in beta test, without official release date. For more information on downloading and installing the beta version of Android 12 on your Pixel or a qualifying Android device, follow our instructions here.

Hardware You are not yet working on the standard Chrome app

With your smartphone running the beta version of Android 12, go ahead and download Chrome canary. It is the test version of Chrome that currently has this dynamic theme feature. Fair warning, however, Canary software is unstable, as it introduces new features that are not fully bug tested. Don’t expect Chrome Canary to perform as well as the stable version of Chrome.

After clicking through the initial registration windows, it’s time to get down to business. This option is currently controlled by two “flags”, which are basically just hidden features that Google is currently testing. To keep things simple, you can copy and paste each of the following flags into the Chrome Canary URL:

chrome: flags # theme-refactor-android

chrome: flags # dynamic-color-android

Paste the first flag, press Fault, then tap Enabled. Then paste the second one, press Fault, but choose Enabled (full). Now press ” To throw back “. However, you may not see the changes take effect when Chrome Canary is relaunched; if you don’t, force quit the app and relaunch it.

You should now see the Chrome Canary UI change to match your wallpaper. It’s pretty subtle, to be fair, but it’s a pretty look. If you change the wallpaper, Chrome Canary should change its theme accordingly. It works with both light and dark modes, so those who like to browse with a darker theme will also be able to take advantage of this feature.

However, it is not yet 100% there; context menus, for example, don’t reflect the change in theme, so your Chrome Canary experience won’t be exactly what we expect from Chrome with the official version of Android 12.