Dear /e/OS team and dear community,
First of all, I want to sincerely thank you for the extraordinary work you do. /e/OS is not just an operating system – it is a statement of digital independence, and I use it with great pleasure every day.
I would like to suggest two improvements that would bring an even more modern, personal, and useful experience for users:
1. Complete and native support for Material 3 Expressive – the entire system, all native apps, widgets, and everything perfectly integrated with dynamic colors from the wallpaper
I would love for /e/OS to fully adopt Material 3 Expressive (the official evolution of Material You / Material 3, launched by Google in May 2025 and integrated into Android 16 and later). Specifically: automatically extract vibrant colors from the user’s chosen wallpaper and apply them coherently across everything – the main interface, launcher, quick settings, notification bar, control panel, all native system apps (Settings, Phone, Messages, Files, etc.), and especially widgets.
Many of the current native apps still feel like they are stuck in 2017 style – not modern at all for 2026. All of them (including every native system app) should use Material 3 Expressive so the whole ecosystem becomes coherent, alive, and truly up-to-date.
Currently we don’t have good widget support (in Bliss Launcher they are limited only to the left page, cannot be placed freely on the main home screen together with icons, and do not benefit from dynamic theming from the wallpaper). With Material 3 Expressive we could solve this completely: widgets would become “smart surfaces” with flexible placement, expressive animations, and colors that perfectly adapt to any wallpaper.
What Material 3 Expressive brings new (according to the official guidelines on m3.material.io and Google’s UX research):
• Vibrant and dynamic colors – much livelier and more emotional palettes, instantly extracted from any wallpaper, with extended support for complex harmonies.
• Intuitive and “springy” animations – realistic physical movements with subtle haptic feedback (notifications “fold” like a book, swipes feel elastic and natural).
• Adaptive and expressive components – bold shapes for buttons, cards and menus, variable typography that highlights what matters.
• Fully dynamic widgets – they would look spectacular, with layered animations and personalized content (exactly what is missing today!).
Why would it be very much worth investing in this? Google’s official research (the largest design update ever studied, with tens of thousands of participants) shows impressive results:
• Expressive designs are preferred by people of all ages and score much higher on attributes like “playful”, “energetic”, “creative” and “friendly”.
• Users find important interface elements up to 4 times faster – the phone becomes easier and quicker to use every day.
• People are more likely to choose and stay with products that use Material 3 Expressive (many would switch just for this!).
• It increases brand perception by up to 34% as modern and innovative.
• It creates a real emotional connection – the interface is no longer just “clean and functional”, but “alive”, pleasant and 100% personal through the wallpaper.
For /e/OS this would be a huge advantage: we would have an open-source, Google-free system that feels more modern and attractive than many stock ROMs or other de-Googled alternatives. Our users (and new ones) would feel they have a premium phone, and complaints about the launcher, widgets, and outdated native apps would disappear. It would increase satisfaction, retention and the number of users – a real “killer feature”!
2. Strategic partnership with Curve Pay – the European alternative to Google Wallet (my main suggestion)
A real challenge for many /e/OS users is the lack of an elegant contactless payment solution, because Google Wallet depends on Google services. The ideal solution could come through a partnership with Curve Pay (the app previously known as Curve).
Curve Pay is an innovative digital wallet, perfectly adapted for Europe (available across the entire EEA, including Romania). Its main advantages:
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Combines all your bank cards (Visa and Mastercard) into one smart wallet
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Revolutionary “Go Back in Time” function – you can change the card you paid with even after the transaction
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Full NFC support for contactless payments (tap-to-pay)
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Smart spending insights, automated rules, cashback and zero hidden fees on certain transactions
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Solid security through tokenization (real card details are never exposed)
Many users in de-Googled communities (such as GrapheneOS) already use it successfully as a Google Wallet alternative. An official partnership with /e/OS could include native integration, specific optimizations and even promotion in the App Lounge. It would be a true “killer feature” that would make /e/OS much more attractive for everyday users across Europe.
I am convinced that these two directions would bring joy to many users and would position /e/OS even stronger on the market.
Thank you for reading this suggestion and I remain available for any discussions or additional details. We are a wonderful community and together we can do great things!
With much respect and enthusiasm,
Raul