This is how Material Design looks on Chrome OS, rolling out now

Google has been revamping its look piece by piece to fall in line with the Material Design style guidelines that it introduced two years ago. Now the look is spreading to Chrome. As Google designer Sebastien Gabriel details on Dribbble, a new design is rolling out on Chrome OS as part of the latest update (version 50). The browser and operating system don't look substantially different — everything is still in the same place and working the same way — but there are very clear visual differences across the board. There are sharper edges, tweaked colors, altered animations, and so on. You'd definitely notice it if they just popped up on you one day, but you'll still feel totally at home.

Alongside the design changes, Chrome OS is also getting a slightly altered design meant for use on touchscreen Chromebooks. It's called Chrome OS' "hybrid mode," and it basically just means that the screen layout is sized to work with either your finger or a mouse. Buttons have a bit more padding around them so they're easier to press, but there's little else changed. Touchscreen Chromebooks will default to using this mode, though it sounds like users will have an option to turn it off.

Eventually, the Material Design changes will also make their way to Chrome on the desktop. Gabriel says that they're a "work in progress," though there isn't a firm release date just yet. That said, you can already start to try it out. If you're willing to put up with a few bugs, you can activate an early version of the design changes by going to "about:flags" in Chrome's address bar, and then activating "Material Design in the browser's top chrome."

Gabriel published a number of examples of Material Design inside Chrome OS. You can see a handful of them below.