At Google I/O 2021, Google unveiled Material You, the next evolution of Material Design, along with Android 12. This update introduced Material Design 3 (M3), bringing a host of significant changes and improvements to the Material Design system. For Flutter developers, adopting Material 3 offers a seamless and consistent design experience across multiple platforms. In this article, we will delve into the key changes of Material 3 in Flutter and explore how it enhances the app development process.

1. Dynamic Color:‍

One of the notable features of Material 3 is dynamic color, which enables developers to apply consistent colors throughout their apps. By leveraging the Material Theme Builder web app or the Figma plugin, developers can visualize and create custom color schemes based on a given seed color. The dynamic color system ensures that colors from different tonal palettes are applied consistently across the UI, resulting in a harmonious visual experience.

2. Typography:‍

Material 3 simplifies typography by categorizing it into five key groups: Display, Headline, Title, Body, and Label. This categorization makes using different sizes within each group easier, catering to devices with varying screen sizes. The scaling of typography has also become consistent across the groups, offering a more streamlined and cohesive approach to implementing typography in Flutter apps.

3. Shapes:‍

Material 3 introduces a wider range of shapes, including squared, rounded, and rounded rectangular shapes. Previously circular elements, such as the FloatingActionButton (FAB), have now transitioned to a rounded rectangular shape. Additionally, widgets like Card, Dialog, and BottomSheet feature a more rounded appearance in Material 3. These shape enhancements give developers more flexibility in designing visually appealing and modern-looking user interfaces.

4. Elevation:‍

In Material Design 2, elevated components had shadows that varied based on their elevation values. Material 3 takes this a step further by introducing the surfaceTintColor color property. This property applies a color to the surface of elevated components, with the intensity varying based on the elevation value. By incorporating surfaceTintColor, elevated components remain visually distinguishable even without shadows, resulting in a more polished and consistent UI.

Let's go through each of them in detail.

Dynamic Color

Dynamic color in Flutter enables you to apply consistent colors throughout your app. It includes key and neutral colors from different tonal palettes, ensuring a harmonious UI experience. You can use tools like Material Theme Builder or Figma plugin to create a custom color scheme to visualize and generate dynamic colors. By providing a seed color in your app's theme, you can easily create an M3 ColorScheme. For example, adding "colorSchemeSeed: Colors.green" to your app will result in a lighter green color for elements like the FloatingActionButton (FAB), providing a customized look for your app.

CODE: https://gist.github.com/velotiotech/e329e05888b44e8e2304903089c98297.js

Note:
When using the colorSchemeSeed in Flutter, it's important to note that if you have already defined a primarySwatch in your app's theme, you may encounter an assertion error. The error occurs because colorSchemeSeed and primarySwatch should not be used together. To avoid this issue, ensure that you either remove the primarySwatch or set colorSchemeSeed to null when using the colorSchemeSeed feature in your Flutter app.

Using Material 3

Typography

In Material 3, the naming of typography has been made simpler by dividing it into five main groups: 

1. Display 
2. Headline 
3. Title 
4. Body 
5. Label
   

Each group has a more descriptive role, making it easier to use different font sizes within a specific typography group. For example, instead of using names like bodyText1, bodyText2, and caption, Material 3 introduces names like BodyLarge, BodyMedium, and BodySmall. This improved naming system is particularly helpful when designing typography for devices with varying screen sizes.

Shapes

Material 3 introduces an expanded selection of shapes, including square, rounded, and rounded rectangular shapes. The Floating Action Button (FAB), which used to be circular, now has a rounded rectangular shape. Material buttons have transitioned from rounded rectangular to pill-shaped. Additionally, widgets such as Card, Dialog, and BottomSheet have adopted a more rounded appearance in Material 3.

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Elevation

In Material 2, elevated components were accompanied by shadows, with the size of the shadow increasing as the elevation increased. Material 3 brings a new feature called surfaceTintColor. When applied to elevated components, the surface of these components takes on the specified color, with the intensity varying based on the elevation value. This property is now available for all elevated widgets in Flutter, alongside elevation and shadow properties.

Here's an example Flutter app that demonstrates the key changes in Material 3 regarding dynamic color, typography, shapes, and elevation. This example app includes a simple screen with a colored container and text, showcasing the usage of these new features:

CODE: https://gist.github.com/velotiotech/ccaea6e906af470ec43603d42a1b57e1.js

Conclusion:

Material 3 represents a significant update to the Material Design system in Flutter, offering developers a more streamlined and consistent approach to app design. The dynamic color feature allows for consistent colors throughout the UI, while the simplified typography and expanded shape options provide greater flexibility in creating visually engaging interfaces. Moreover, the enhancements in elevation ensure a cohesive and polished look for elevated components.

As Flutter continues to evolve and adapt to Material 3, developers can embrace these key changes to create beautiful, personalized, and accessible designs across different platforms. The Flutter team has been diligently working to provide full support for Material 3, enabling developers to migrate their existing Material 2 apps seamlessly. By staying up to date with the progress of Material 3 implementation in Flutter, developers can leverage its features to enhance their app development process and deliver exceptional user experiences.

Remember, Material 3 is an exciting opportunity for Flutter developers to create consistent and unified UI experiences, and exploring its key changes opens up new possibilities for app design.