Google's Material 3 Expressive revamp spree leaving some users frustrated; Pixel 10 becomes world's first phone to bag this useful feature

The past couple of weeks have been a wild ride for Pixel fans. From last-minute Pixel 10 leaks to the launch and everything in between, there are still no signs of any slowdowns. Google is still in the kitchen cooking up its revamped apps that bring the new Material 3 Expressive design language. But it seems not everyone’s a fan of this change.

Just a day ago, we highlighted how people were made at Google for redesigning the Phone (Dialer) app on our sister site, where we even shared a workaround to get back the old UI. However, that’s not the only app redesign that some Pixel users are complaining about. We’ve spotted multiple threads on Reddit also bashing the new Clock app.

Users say the M3 Expressive pass has messed with muscle memory. The swipe gesture to hop between Alarms, Clock, Timer and Stopwatch is gone for some, replaced by a tab strip that needs taps. Fonts have ballooned in places, labels wrap in odd ways, and the space between cards feels exaggerated, making the alarms list show fewer items at once. Several Reddit threads call out the Alarms page blasting a bright background even with dark theme on, which is a rude surprise when you open it at night.

A few posts also flag truncation and scaling bugs, where text no longer fits neatly inside buttons or tiles.

The Calculator refresh is getting similar pushback. Early adopters say the new type choices and padding make it feel “toy-like,” with lower information density and less contrast than before, which slows quick entries.

But this design lines up with the broader M3 Expressive goals, which dial up size, shape and motion to be more playful. The flip side is that power users, who prize speed and scan-ability, feel like they’re tapping through more white space to get the same work done.

There’s also a curious new “Create” button under Wallpaper and Style, inside the Icons section, showing up on the Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1. It currently just displays an “App isn’t installed” pop-up when tapped, which has led to a pile of “is this a bug or a teaser?” posts across r/android_beta. Given Google’s recent AI art experiments for wallpapers, icon packs and decorative elements, it looks like a switch got flipped before the backend was ready.

If you see it, don’t waste time clearing cache, most reports say it’s server-side and non-functional for now.

Amid the UI churn, Pixel 10 is lining up a headline feature that might actually save your bacon off the grid. Google announced that the Pixel 10 will “offer voice and video calls on WhatsApp over a satellite network starting 8/28” on X, making it the first handset to offer that through Meta’s app if it ships as described.

Android already added hooks for satellite SOS, but real-time video is a bigger lift. Expect latency and bandwidth limits, a clear view of the sky, and possibly carrier or region caveats. Still, for hikers, rural users, or anyone caught in an outage, being able to place a WhatsApp call without cellular coverage would be a meaningful upgrade over SOS-only texting.

With the recent Pixel 10 launch, the whole Material 3 Expressive revamp, and Google dropping both stable and beta updates, it seems the company has a lot on its plate. So it’s likely that Google will continue refining its apps down the line. The best thing you can do is leave feedback about any app UI redesign that you don’t like through official channels like Google’s help forums.

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