Embracing the Dark Mode

All hail the dark mode. I look at screens all the time from browsing the web, social media and video-centric platforms both on my laptop and on my smartphone. This goes on from the moment I wake up till late into the night. So when applications and sites started offering dark mode or night mode options, it was a welcome relief to my eyes and me in the long run – for aesthetic purposes. I’ve become more comfortable with darker interfaces so now all the apps that have this option are eternally on night or dark mode/theme, even during the day.

Here are the most popular Android, iOS apps and sites that have the dark or night mode/theme and how to turn them on.

Android Q and iOS 13 are reportedly set to come with an overall system-wide dark mode but take that with a grain of salt.

On Android

It’s ironic that Android started out with darker interfaces and then switched to more white-centric interfaces in recent years.

Google Phone app, Keep, Gooogle Calculator App, Discover Feed, Google Play Games, Google Help Centre, Google Authenticator, Google Contacts app, Google’s Clock app and Android Messages app: Just tap the three-line menu icon in its top-right corner, select settings then Display options and lastly toggling on the dark theme.

YouTube: Go to your profile picture, select settings> General settings> toggle on dark theme.

Google Maps: The app automatically goes into dark mode depending on the time of the day. To get it to permanent status, go to Settings> Navigation Settings> Map display> color scheme> select night

Google News app/Snapseed: Tap the circular icon, go to settings and select dark theme. I’ve put mine on an Always on, an option you can toggle to keep the dark mode permanent. Google-owned photo editor also has a dark mode which you can turn on using the same method.

Gboard: Google’s keyboard app doesn’t have a switch for dark mode; however, it offers dark themes for you to play around with. Go to theme located within the keyboard’s upper row and browse through the dark themes offered.

Other Google apps that have night mode include Google Discover Feed, Google Play Games, the Pixel launcher ( the dark theme can be triggered by using a dark wallpaper) and the Google Authenticator app

Pulse Messages app: Go to Main Menu> Customization settings> Theme> Base theme> select either Always dark or Always black. Other customization settings you can play around with include changing the theme based on the time of day and change colours too.

Signal/Telegram:  Go to Main menu> settings> Appearance> Theme and select dark. For Telegram, head to Settings> Chat settings> select dark theme. You can also toggle on the Auto night mode.

WhatsApp: WhatsApp Android beta app version 2.19.82 apk teardown has shown that Dark Mode is imminent for launch. The beta app has Dark Mode reserved for settings(notifications settings, data and storage settings, chats settings, and even account setting) for now among other new forwarding features such as Forwarding Info and Frequently Forwarded. The Dark mode won’t be friendly to OLED screens as it is based on a very, very dark grey.

We’ll have to wait and see if this goes live and WhatsApp catches up with its rival messaging apps who’ve already implemented Dark Mode. For now, you can change Wallpaper Chat colour to a more darker colour. If you have a Xiami phone, you can use a black theme from the Mi Theme Store such as the Simple Black theme.

Alternatively, as you wait, you can use other non-official apps such as WhatsApp GB  or Whatsapp Plus that already have themes to play around with. Just select a dark theme to get that desired dark mode.

Opera, Puffin, Firefox browser app: Chrome doesn’t have a dark mode, yet but other third-party browsing apps have it such as Opera. All this can be done by tapping the O icon in the apps navigation bar on the bottom and you’ll see night mode switch and turn it on. This can also be done on the Puffin app too.

On Firefox, the app has add-ons that turn entire websites black, unlike the above-named ones which just adjust the colouring of browser elements. Head to the three-dot menu icon located in the upper right corner, select add-ons and search for Dark Night.

Solid Explorer: A top pick among file managers has both a dark and black theme. To get there head to the three line menu icon on the apps other side, click the gear icon towards the top of the menu that appears and tap on themes to get either dark or black interface.

On iOS

Ios apps that support dark mode include Spotify, Word Flow, iBooks, Clock app, Pocket, Pocketcasts, Overcast, Evernote, Feedly, Portfolio, Fantastical 2, Reddit, Steam Mobile, Weather Underground, Instapaper, Google Maps, SimpleNote, Coda app, YouTube Gamin and Youtube Music.

Desktop

Gmail: This can be done using custom themes that only work partially as you can still white interface elements when you open an email or click on a menu. Google should bring a proper dark theme just like how it has done to most of its app. Go to Gmail settings and click on the Themes, select a dark theme and save.

YouTube and YouTube TV: YouTube TV offers the dark mode option only on the desktop. This is the best of the dark themes I’ve seen as it is service-wide meaning it covers the entire interface including all the menus. To get it, click on your profile> Settings > Dark Theme > Toggle on

Chrome: Chrome has its High Contrast extension that darkens websites you visit. It works well when you pair it with the Morpheon Dark theme.

Slack: The official slack app doesn’t have a dark theme but they’re workarounds that including unofficial dark mode hacks from third-party apps and Github repositories. This one is highly recommended.

Reddit: Night mode was one of Reddit’s highly requested features and this one didn’t come until later last year but now that it is here, scroll through your favourite subreddits without harming your eyes.

Windows 10 and MacOS Mojave now have official dark mode settings that allow integration of third-party apps that bring dark theme. An example is Microsoft Office that supports Windows 10 dark mode. Chrome is also getting a dark mode for both platforms too.

Other sites/apps include

• Darkdocs – dark mode for Google Docs
• Trello Night, Kanball Mail, Todoist, Pushbullet, Twitter
• Nomad List
• DuckDuckGo, Ghost
• Facebook Dark, Discord, Telegram desktop(Unigram), Twitter Web dark theme, ProductHunt Dark, Hacker News Dark
• Coin Market Cap, coin.fyi, crypto compare,
• Medium dark extension for Chrome
• freeCodeCamp, Visual Studio Code, Xcode, Atom, Notepad++, Github Dark, Firefox Devtools, Chrome Devtools
• Local by Flywheel for WordPress development
• Turn Off the lights that darken websites
• Mac: Timing App, HazeOver, Boxy, Skype, Facebook Messenger(Caprine), Telegram, Tweetbot, OSX Dark Mode, Forecast Bar, Macbook Alarm, Uptime Bar
• Timelinr, Raindrop, Trackly, Riot, FastMail, Ulysses, Dark Reader

If I had the might, I would put everything in dark mode. Also what do we have to do to get dark mode on Instagram?