TL;DR
- Android 15 is getting ready a giant redesign of the amount panel that additionally makes it collapsible.
- Android’s quantity panel enables you to change the media, name, ringer, notification, and alarm quantity.
- The quantity panel’s UI is a number of years outdated and doesn’t comply with the most recent Materials Design tips.
Again in 2021, Google launched Materials You, a significant revamp to the corporate’s design language. Materials You design parts had been first integrated into that 12 months’s Android 12 launch. Though Android’s present design hasn’t modified drastically since then, it has acquired minor tweaks within the few releases since. Within the upcoming Android 15 launch, Google is lastly planning to revamp the system quantity panel UI.
The quantity panel seems when the consumer presses a quantity key after which faucets the three-dot menu on the backside. The present design options 5 completely different sliders for every quantity stream. From high to backside, these embrace media, name, ring, notification, and alarm quantity controls. A skinny slider controls the extent of every. Aside from the panel’s header, stream icons, and sliders, there are additionally buttons to open Android’s sound and vibration settings and dismiss the panel. Lastly, if there’s any energetic media playback, a shortcut to open Android’s media output switcher will seem beneath the media quantity slider.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Android’s present quantity panel design is a carbon copy of the amount slider part underneath Settings > Sound & vibration. It is because the amount panel is definitely comprised of “slices” — a function launched again in Android 9 Pie — taken from that very web page.
The brand new quantity panel UI I used to be in a position to manually activate within the newest Android 15 Developer Preview 2 launch, nevertheless, is decoupled from this. The brand new quantity panel design, as proven beneath, options a lot thicker, pill-shaped sliders. A dot is positioned on the finish the place the slider’s most worth is, and the icons are additionally tappable to rapidly mute that stream.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Android 15’s new quantity panel can be collapsible. Tapping the button subsequent to the media quantity slider collapses or expands the panel. Every time there’s energetic media playback, the amount panel is collapsed by default. In any other case, it opens in its absolutely expanded state.
The “sound & vibration” header can be gone, and instead is a persistent media output shortcut. Beforehand, the media output shortcut solely appeared at any time when there was energetic media playback. The up to date design reveals the shortcut no matter media playback state. Nonetheless, when there isn’t any energetic media playback, tapping the shortcut doesn’t open the media output switcher. As an alternative, it appears the shortcut stays simply to inform the consumer which audio system is at the moment dealing with playback.
Google additionally added some playful animations to the brand new Android 15 quantity panel. As you possibly can see within the video up high, the stream title textual content strikes with the slider so you possibly can all the time see the stream title as you regulate the amount degree. The present quantity degree can be proven rather than the icon everytime you’re shifting the slider.
Aside from the brand new design, the amount panel will even floor further controls for issues like spatial audio and “noise management.” Nonetheless, I wasn’t in a position to floor these controls throughout testing. This up to date quantity panel design isn’t enabled by default within the present Android 15 Developer Preview 2 construct, however Google might roll it out within the upcoming beta launch.