# Material Components for Android: the Views library now in maintenance mode > The official Material Design widget library for XML layouts, kept for bug fixes while Google pushes every new feature toward Jetpack Compose. **material-components/material-components-android** — [MAINTENANCE MODE] Modular and customizable Material Design UI components for Android - Repository: https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android - Stars: 17,412 · Forks: 3,234 - Language: Java - License: Apache-2.0 - Published: 2026-10-07 · Updated: 2026-10-07 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/material-components-material-components-android ## Maintenance mode is stated in the first paragraph The README heading reads MAINTENANCE MODE, and the explanation follows immediately. At Google I/O 2026, Material Android announced an all-in move on Compose, alongside an official Android Compose-first announcement, marking what the README calls a new chapter in Android development. The consequence for anyone using this library is stated without hedging: there are no more planned feature releases for Views. Projects using the Views library should begin or continue migrating to Compose to get the latest Material Design and Android platform updates. This is a genuinely unusual thing to find in a repository README, and it is worth respecting the clarity of it. Most libraries in this position drift quietly, with release notes that stop mentioning features and an issue tracker that slowly fills with unanswered feature requests. Here the position is declared, dated by reference to a specific conference, and accompanied by eight links covering the announcement, the Compose-first documentation, the Material-specific blog post, a Compose Material 3 getting started guide, the Compose Material 3 releases page, the API reference, the Jetpack Compose homepage and a migration guide for moving XML views to Compose. The repository's last push was on 2026-09-14, so maintenance work is genuinely still happening. The repository is Apache-2.0 licensed, written in Java, and not archived. ## What the library actually contains The description calls it modular and customizable Material Design UI components for Android, and the repository structure supports that reading. The `lib/` directory is linked from the README under All Components and holds the individual component libraries. The `catalog/` directory holds a sample application that exercises them, documented separately under the Catalog App guide, which is how you see a component working with its dependencies resolved rather than reading about it in the abstract. `tests/` and `testing/` exist as separate directories, and `docs/` carries the documentation set: a getting started guide, a directory structure page, and a `docs/components/` directory with a page per component. Build files at the root tell you it is a Gradle project in the modern Android idiom: `build.gradle`, `settings.gradle`, `gradle.properties`, a `gradle/` directory, and both `gradlew` and `gradlew.bat` wrapper scripts. There is also a `.mdc-docsite.yml` file, which is the configuration for generating the documentation site. So this is a multi-module Gradle repository rather than a single library module, and the components are independently consumable. That matters when you are deciding how much of it to depend on. ## Version 1.14.0 and what a maintenance release still contains The release history shows that maintenance mode does not mean the library has stopped moving. Release 1.14.0 was published on 2026-05-13, with a preceding release candidate 1.14.0-rc01 on 2026-04-29 and a beta on 2026-04-09, which is a normal pre-release cadence rather than an emergency patch. The 1.14.0 notes are the last feature-shaped release. They list Expressive Themes, Expressive Lists, Expressive Button Styles, Expressive Icon Button Styles, Expressive Button Group Styles, Expressive FAB Styles, Expressive Top App Bar Styles and Expressive Navigation Bar styles for BottomNavigationView, each with a link to the relevant documentation page. These are the Material 3 Expressive additions, so the last version to ship new styling is the one carrying the newest design language work. The release candidate notes are a better picture of what ongoing maintenance looks like. They record a `compileSdkVersion` bump to 35, a `minSdkVersion` bump to 23, and a switch to building with AGP 8.11.1 and Gradle 8.13. Below that is a long list of individual fixes: a Carousel shape appearance mutation and constant state issue, a crash in a TopAppBar preferences demo, dropdown menu focus ring and Enter or Space handling, a floating toolbar reference to non-existent Expressive styles, and a BottomSheet change making `behavior_draggableOnNestedScroll` public. Read that list as the real future of this library. New platform targets, new build tooling, defect fixes and small API surface changes, with no new components. ## Where to file an issue, and where not to The bug reporting section is short and has a fork in it that will save you time. For usage questions the README points at Stack Overflow with the material-components tag. Bugs and feature requests go to the GitHub issues section. But then there is a note that matters if you have moved on: if your issue or feature request is for Material Jetpack Compose, file it at the Compose Issue Tracker instead, with a specific component id and template. That note is the practical shape of the maintenance mode announcement. Feature requests against this repository are being collected for a library that will not gain features, so a request for something new belongs in the Compose tracker where it can still be acted on. Existing defect reports remain the right place for anything broken in the Views library. The repository's open issue count is high in absolute terms, which is what you would expect from a project of this age and adoption in maintenance mode: many of those are almost certainly feature requests that now belong in the other tracker, and a smaller set are real bugs against code that is still being maintained. ## The documentation set the README indexes Rather than documenting components in its own README, the project indexes them, and that index is a reasonable map of the library. The Documentation section lists a directory structure page, which answers what goes where in the multi-module layout, and a components directory with a page per component. The Useful Links section adds Getting Started, Contributing, Using Snapshot Version, Building From Source and Catalog App, then points outward to the external class documentation on developer.android.com, a Stack Overflow tag, the Android developer's guide, Material.io, and the Material Design guidelines. Two of those deserve attention for anyone deciding whether to adopt or stay on this library. Using Snapshot Version covers building against unreleased commits, which is how you get a fix before it ships in a release. Building From Source and Contributing matter because the maintenance period is precisely when contributions are most useful: the maintainers are fixing rather than designing, and there is a documented path for getting a change in. The catalog app is the other thing worth knowing about. Component documentation tells you what a widget accepts; the catalog shows what it looks like with real content, which is usually the faster answer when you are deciding between two styles. ## Conclusion The most useful thing to know about this library in 2026 is that Google has ended its feature line, and the repository says so at the top of its README rather than leaving you to infer it from commit dates. Material Components for Android, often referred to as MDC-Android, is the Views implementation of Material Design, and it remains the correct answer for any Android app still building its interface in XML, including the many codebases where a Compose migration is a project rather than a weekend. It will keep receiving maintenance, and version 1.14.0 shipped on 2026-05-13 with Expressive Themes and a set of expressive component styles. What it will not receive is new Material Design surface area. If you are starting an app today, the Compose Material 3 library is where the work is. If you are maintaining an existing XML codebase, follow the migration guide linked in the README and read the `docs/` directory, where the getting started guide, directory structure notes and per component pages are indexed. ## FAQ ### What is Material Design on Android? It is Google's design language for Android, and this repository holds its official implementation for apps that build their interface with XML Views rather than Jetpack Compose. The library is described as modular and customizable Material Design UI components, and ships individual component libraries under its lib directory with a catalog app that demonstrates them. Newer Material Design work now goes to the Compose Material 3 library instead. ### Is Material Components for Android still being updated? Yes, but only in maintenance mode. The README states there are no more planned feature releases for Views after the Google I/O 2026 announcement of an all-in move on Compose. The repository's last push was on 2026-09-14, and version 1.14.0 shipped on 2026-05-13 with Expressive Themes and expressive component styles, so maintenance releases with fixes and platform bumps continue. ### Should I migrate from Material Components for Android to Compose? For a new project, yes, because new Material Design work lands in Compose Material 3 and this library will not gain features. For an existing XML codebase it depends on how large the surface area is, and the README links a migration guide for moving XML Views to Jetpack Compose. The library remains usable and maintained in the meantime, so migration is a planned project rather than an emergency. ### Where do I report a Material Components for Android bug? Usage questions go to Stack Overflow under the material-components tag, and bugs or feature requests go to the repository's GitHub issues section. If the issue is really about Material Jetpack Compose rather than the Views library, the README says to file it at the Compose Issue Tracker instead, which is where feature requests for a library in maintenance mode can still be acted on. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android/issues) - [License: Apache-2.0](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android/blob/master/LICENSE) - [material-components/material-components-android on GitHub](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android) - [README](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/material-components/material-components-android/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/material-components-material-components-android