Google introduced its dynamic color engine Material You alongside Android 12 back in 2021. In 2023, the wallpaper-based design language is finally moving to more places, with Google working to bring it to Chrome on desktops and ChromeOS. On the latest Dev version of Google's laptop OS, 114, it’s now finally possible to pick your preferred wallpaper-based colors yourself — if you turn on a flag or if you’re lucky enough to be in the a/b test, that is.

When you’re using the latest version of ChromeOS Dev 114, you can now activate the #jelly-colors and #personalization-jelly flags in order to make four distinct accent color schemes available, including a toggle to turn off wallpaper color matching altogether. This is right in line with Android 12, which also offered only four different accent colors rather than the 16 different color derivation methods offered by Android 13. In contrast to Android, you also don’t get a selection of default colors that aren’t derived from your wallpaper, which could be a bummer for some who might like their wallpaper to look different from their interface.

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The custom colors were previously activated by Chrome Unboxed in January, but it’s only now available more broadly and without requiring any workarounds.

The new theming capabilities are best used in conjunction with the #chrome-refresh-2023 flag, which activates the upcoming redesign of desktop Chrome that offers a few more places where the new colors can show up.

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You’ve been able to get a glimpse of Material You theming before even before this flag became functional. With the Jelly Colors flag enabled, ChromeOS would pull the default Material You color set from the currently selected wallpaper, dunking your interface into whatever dominant colors there are available. With the new tweak, it’s now possible to select the color derivation engine you prefer, giving you just a little more control over how your Material You-themed Chromebook is supposed to look like.

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With the Material You color picker functional in ChromeOS 114, we presume that Google will announce the big ChromeOS redesign on stage later this month at Google I/O. After all, the color picker was the last remaining piece of the puzzle piece that completes the 2023 redesign planned for the OS. Two years after the release of Material You on Android, we won’t have to wait long until it comes to more Google services.

Thanks: Hamzah