Forking Cuts Components Off From Updates

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Material Design evolved from a fixed system into a flexible foundation. Designers now push for custom shadows, animated backgrounds, and oversized components. Engineering teams fork components to achieve these effects. Forking breaks the connection to future updates. The component loses automatic accessibility fixes, functional logic, and new behaviors. For designers, this is like detaching a Figma library component. The goal is to reduce forking so teams can reuse the Material system while adding unique brand visuals.

Styles API Prevents Forking

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Google is integrating Material Components with the new Jetpack Compose Styles API. The Shrine study showed a promotional button with custom shadows and an animated background. Previously, achieving this required forking the button and rebuilding all underlying logic. With Styles, the visual change is applied without forking. The component stays attached to Material, guaranteeing future updates and accessibility support. Teams can now move beyond defaults while keeping the functional foundation intact.

Real-World Studies: Achieve and Clip

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Achieve, a goal-setting app, replaces the standard Material ripple with a custom animation. Using Styles, the team created the effect while maintaining pressed and focused states and accessibility. Clip, an audio recording app, uses oversized graphic components. Previously limited to Material’s size variants, they can now modify size, shape, and spacing directly. Both studies kept the connection to Material’s functional logic and accessibility standards. The update lets teams focus on high-polish custom visuals without rebuilding component foundations.

Notable Quotes

When you fork, you break your connection to the Material foundation. Bradley Patrie · ▶ Watch (2:44)

Our goal is to reduce the need to fork so you can create beautiful, premium, and deeply branded apps while allowing you to reuse as much of the Material design system as possible. Liam Spradlin · ▶ Watch (3:00)

You no longer have to choose between standout brand identity and the built-in usability gains of material. Bradley Patrie · ▶ Watch (6:25)

Key Takeaways

  • Material Components will integrate with Jetpack Compose Styles API for visual customization without forking.
  • Forking a component cuts it off from automatic accessibility and logic updates.
  • Three material studies demonstrated Styles applied to buttons, ripples, and size variants.