Holo (design language)

Holo is a discontinued design language developed by Google for the Android operating system. It was described by Google as a theme rather than a design language.^[1]

Holo
Homescreen of Android Ice Cream Sandwich with Holo running on a Galaxy Nexus
Developer	Google
Initial release	October 19, 2011; 14 years ago (2011-10-19)
Platform	Android
Predecessor	Android Honeycomb
Successor	Material Design

Holo first appeared in Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" evolving from the user interface introduced by Android Honeycomb but the same futuristic aesthetics of Android Honeycomb were used in favor of flat design with neon blue accenting, hard edges, and drop shadows. Holo also introduced a new default system font, Roboto; designed to replace the Droid font family, Roboto was primarily optimized for use on high-resolution mobile displays.^[2]

Google discontinued Holo in 2014 and it was replaced by its successor Material Design used in Android 5.0 "Lollipop" and later.^[3] Material Design is also used in Google Workspace apps.^[4]

Updates

Android 4.4 KitKat

Android KitKat's user interface further downgraded the Holo interface appearance used on 4.0 and later until 4.3, replacing most instances of blue accenting with greys and white.

The appearance may deviate in custom vendor distributions such as Samsung TouchWiz.