Google could finally give Pixels proper Material You color controls

Google’s Material You design language may finally be getting one of its most requested upgrades. A new leak suggests that Pixel phones could soon let users pick custom accent colors through the Wallpapers & style app instead of relying only on Google’s preset palettes.

A video showing the feature in action was shared by Telegram leakers Mystic Leaks, who reportedly obtained an early build of a future Android 17 release. The leak also shows additional blur effects across the Android UI, but the bigger news here is the new color picker in the Wallpaper and style settings.

For those unfamiliar, Wallpaper & style is the menu on Pixel devices where users can customize their home screen appearance, wallpapers, themed icons, lock screen, and colors.

Right now, the colors section automatically generates a few preset color palettes based on your wallpaper. There’s also an option to choose “other colors” but those are also a set of predefined shaded that can be applied across system elements like icons, buttons, menus, text highlights, and quick settings tiles.

The new leak shows that Google is preparing two major upgrades for this experience in Android 17.

The first is a new set of color intensity presets. Options shown in the video include “Neutral,” “Soft,” “Bright,” and “Bold.” Neutral appears to tone everything down with gray shades, while Soft keeps colors subtle. Bright makes the interface more vibrant, and Bold adds stronger multi-color accents throughout the UI.

The second change shows that Google is adding a full color picker with sliders that let users manually choose their own accent colors. Android also seems to preview the changes in real time as users adjust the slider.

That would be a huge change for Pixel users, many of whom have been asking Google for deeper customization ever since the color picker feature debuted with Android 12.

It’s still unclear when these changes will officially roll out. Current Android 17 builds don’t include the new customization tools, and with the stable Android 17 release expected soon, this may not make the initial launch. There’s a good chance Google could save the feature for a later quarterly update, possibly Android 17 QPR1.