The headline feature of Android 12 was "Material You," a top-to-bottom redesign and dynamic theming system that automatically changed the UI colors depending on your wallpaper.

There is "Tonal Spot," which just seems to be the current Android 12 color system, and then three new color systems called "Vibrant," "Expressive" and "Spritz.".

In Android 12, Material You's color system was continually tweaked in the run-up to release, and these color results from a pre-alpha version of Android 13 probably aren't finished.

One side effect of Android 12's color system is that almost every wallpaper produces a pastel accent, and it is usually impossible to get stronger accent colors from most wallpapers.

On paper, the color option named "Vibrant" would seem like it would be designed to offer an alternative to all the pastels, but the example images are only the slightest bit different from the default colors.

I would not call the "Vibrant" option "vibrant" at all, and I think that's because the new color system just isn't finished yet. Google's promotional images for the Pixel 6 show bold, deep hues of purple, orange, red, and gray, which are all impossible to actually get on Android 12.

The "Vibrant" color option seems like it would be a fit for colors like these.

Some people have asked to turn off the Material You color system, and this option looks like it's headed in that direction.

As a "version 2" update to Material You, this all makes sense to me: one option really leans into the color feature, and another option lets people turn it down.