Google Mandates Android 4.0 ‘Holo’ Theme For All Devices With Android Market

Google’s new native theme, dubbed ‘Holo’, for Ice Cream Sandwich is practical, intuitive, and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In an attempt to offer all of their users a consistent interface, Google is now making the theme mandatory for all Android 4.0 devices that come equipped with the Android Market. No need to panic just yet, as the manufacturer customizations aren’t being wiped out completely.

This is potentially good news for developers as the changes that Google is now enforcing will simplify the lives of the independent developer community. Basically, developers will now have the ability to simply choose between Holo or the manufacturer’s default theme when creating the software’s interface. Here is what Google had to say about the new compatibility standard:

In Android 4.0, Holo is different. We’ve made the inclusion of the unmodified Holo theme family a compatibility requirement for devices running Android 4.0 and forward. If the device has Android Market it will have the Holo themes as they were originally designed. The Android Developers Blog continues to explain, we have no desire to restrict manufacturers from building their own themed experience across their devices. In fact we’ve gone further to make this even easier. In Android 4.0’s API (level 14) we’ve added a new public theme family to complement the Holo family introduced in Android 3.0: DeviceDefault. DeviceDefault themes are aliases for the device’s native look and feel. The DeviceDefault theme family and widget style family offer ways for developers to target the device’s native theme with all customizations intact.

Android apps running on 4.0 and forward can use the Holo themes and be assured that their look and feel will not change when running on a device with a custom skin.Source