I think part of the problem is that all new Google apps want to showcase the newest UI elements and themes. As a techie I do enjoy seeing apps with new UX innov

I think part of the problem is that all new Google apps want to showcase the newest UI elements and themes. As a techie I do enjoy seeing apps with new UX innovations often. Also from developer point of view its good to see what is possible. But on the long run I do understand the value of UI consistency, especially since I started using IPad a while ago. Putting more effort on their UI guideline pages might help. It seems its not updated recently to include any of the newer UI elements yet. Since their own apps are using them they should be good enough for the guidelines: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/i...