When Google announced Material Design at I/O
recently I'm not sure if even they thought the
response to a developer preview of Android 5.0
would be so big and instantaneous. Sure,
Material Design is the biggest visual overhaul in
Android history , but the speed at which some
developers have adapted their existing apps to
match the new style (that even Google apps are
only just starting to get) is impressive.
Here's the list of apps that already feature Material
Design.
Moonshine Icon Pack
This one is pretty limited as far as the app
itself goes, but it's still a nice implementation of
Material Design that came out seriously quickly
after Google I/O. If you have a custom launcher
on your phone then you can switch out your tired
looking icons and get the Android L look with the
Moonshine Icon Pack which is also equipped
with a full Android L theme.
Considering how
long icon packs usually take to make, this one
must have been put together with no sleep at
all.
The result is very impressive though and
provides a great basis for your Android L
makeover.
Install Moonshine - Icon Pack.
Today Calendar
Today Calendar isn't just a great calendar app
and widget, but it's also had a funky fresh
material Design makeover that puts it amongst
the best looking apps in the Play Store. It's
clean, functional and looks great. What more
could you ask for when keeping track of your
busy lifestyle?
Local Cast
This free, ad- or donation-supported app streams
PDFs, images, videos and music locally from
device to device.
The developers are clearly
paying close attention to not only Material
Design, but also to the current Google+ app , which shares the ever-present floating bubble
button.
LocalCast is one of the first apps to feature
Material Design.
Install LocalCast (Media 2 Chromecast).
Mindflux Open Beta
Mindflux lets you organize your calendars, notes,
tasks and alarms easily and clearly. The app is
still in beta, but if you can handle the occasional
bug you'll be rewarded with a great interpretation
of Google 's new design language. Inactive
elements are initially displayed flat and seem to
come forward when they are activated.
You'll
also see round buttons highlighting important
actions.
Flip - Currency Converter
If you are traveling abroad and want to know if
the pair of shoes you're checking out in a shop
window are actually a bargain then you can find
out quickly with this cool-looking currency
converter. The pseudo-flat Material button pops
to life when you tap it to invert your
conversions.
Flip - Currency Converter INSTALL
Now browser (Material)
Now Browser uses a less visible component of
Material Design: navigation. If you swipes from
the left edge to the right, you go back in your
history and if you swipe from the right, you move
forward in time again.
There's other browsers
that let you swipe between tabs, but this is the
first time I've seen it used for navigation in
browser history.
Install Now Browser (Material).
Root Check
Root Check verifies that your device has indeed
been rooted. This is a good tool to know if your
root attempt has worked, but also if you are
buying a used phone from someone you don't
know. Having super-user rights on a device
offers lots of freedom, but lots of risk if you
don't know what you're doing. The app shows
lots of root information in a simple Material
Design theme.
Google Chrome Beta
The Google Chrome Beta web browser has also
received the Material Design treatment. The card
stack layout for multiple tab switching may not
be quite the same as that seen in the developer
preview of Android L, but it's well on the way.
Right now we still don't know just how many
APIs KitKat is missing that are required for all of
the Material Desgin effects but it's clear that
Google is working full steam ahead on their app
makeovers.
Honorable mentions
Talon (Beta) and Google Play Store
Google has partially updated the Play Store app
with Material Design components and you can
grab the beta version of the alternative Twitter
client, if you're running the Android L preview.
If you run into other apps that have been
redesigned with the Material theme in mind, be
sure to let us know so we can add them to this
list.
We'll update this list continuously, or at
least until there's so many Material Designed
apps popping up that this list is no longer
necessary.
What's your favorite app on the list above? What
aspects of Material Design don't you like?
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