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If your eyes feel the strain of staring at a bright screen all day, you may want to check out dark mode for your devices and apps. Dark mode can ease the strain on your eyes and give a more pleasing appearance to websites and apps. By enabling dark mode, you may also let the person sleeping next to you rest easier and save battery life.
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What Is Dark Mode?
Dark mode is a setting that makes the background of a screen dark, often black, and the text white. By enabling dark mode you may be able to reduce some of the strain on your eyes because your screen will be emitting less light.
You also may be able to preserve battery life on your devices by using dark mode. Google confirmed last fall that dark mode uses less battery life on Android devices and encouraged developers to include a dark mode option in their apps. See, Business Insider Google finally confirms something people have long suspected — dark mode on Android phones saves battery life
For these reasons, developers are increasingly offering a dark mode option. Twitter just last week introduced a dark mode setting in its iPhone app. Apple introduced a dark mode option for Mac computers with its Mojave update last fall.
Dark mode may not be for everyone. The contrast between a dark background and white text may, or may not, be appealing to you. But you may want to give dark mode a try to see whether it works best for you.
You can try dark mode everywhere with a universal setting on your computer or phone, or try it on individual apps to see if you like it.
10 Places to Use Dark Mode
Computers
Mac Computers — Mojave
Last fall, Apple began offering dark mode in its update to Mac computers called Mojave. To enable dark mode in Mojave, open System Preferences => Appearance => General. Click Dark to change the settings on your computer to dark mode.
After you’ve changed your Mac computer’s settings to dark, Apple apps such as Safari, Calendar, Messages, Contacts, Notes and more will have a black background with white text.
Windows 10
To enable dark mode on computers running Windows 10, go to Start => Settings => Personalization => Colors => Choose your app mode then choose Dark.
Chrome
To make the Chrome browser dark on your computer, go to the Chrome Web Store Themes page and select a dark theme such as Just Black.
Firefox
Right-click on the toolbar at the top of the Firefox browser. Choose Customize.
At the bottom of the next screen, choose Themes. A menu will appear. Choose Dark from the menu or choose a different theme with a dark color.
Phones and Tablets
iPhone and iPad
iPhone and iPad offer an accessibility feature that will reverse the coloring on the screen, similar to a photograph negative. The effect, called Invert Colors, can be jarring as this feature does more than convert the background to black and the text to white. Instead, colors are reversed throughout the phone, often making images look odd.
Apple has updated Invert Colors with a Smart Invert designed to make dark mode images more accurate, though the colors in images can seem strange.
To enable Invert Colors/Smart Invert, go to Settings = > General => Accessibility => Display Accommodations => Invert Colors. Then turn Smart Invert => On. If you don’t like the look, or just want to experiment, you can turn on Classic Invert instead.
Note that the Invert Colors accessibility setting turns off Night Shift and True Tone.
Android
The most recent version of Android, 9.0 Pie, has a dark mode that’s still in its testing/beta phase. To turn it on, go to Settings => Display and turn on Dark.
If your Android phone doesn’t have that option, do a search for your phone model and dark mode to see if that feature is available.
Apps in Dark Mode
With universal dark mode options on phones and tablets being less that ideal, your best option may be to use dark mode for individual apps. You may find that you like using dark mode in some apps but not others.
By selecting dark mode for individual apps you can customize your dark mode experience how it works best for you.
Facebook Messenger
Dark mode is new to Facebook Messenger so make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of the app to use this feature.
Facebook Messenger may have the most innovative way of enabling dark mode. Send someone a crescent moon emoji in the Facebook Messenger app to unlock the Dark Mode setting.
After you’ve sent the crescent moon emoji, you should see the option of turning on Dark Mode in Settings.
Tap the notice to open Settings, then switch Dark Mode => On.
Google Maps
Google Maps automatically turns its dark mode on when it’s dark outside. But if you’d prefer to have dark mode turned on around the clock, you can turn on this feature in settings. Note that dark mode for Google Maps is on only while navigating a route.
To turn on Night Mode in Google Maps, tap the icon with three stacked lines, then tap the gear icon, then Settings => Navigation => Map Display => Color Scheme. Tap Night to enable dark mode.
To turn on Twitter dark mode, first update your Twitter app to the latest version. Open the app, then tap on your profile picture. Tap Settings and privacy => Display and sound => Night mode => On.
YouTube
Turning on dark mode in the YouTube app may give you a more immersive experience when watching videos. To enable dark mode, open the YouTube app, tap your profile photo. For iPhone and iPad go to Settings => Dark theme => On. For Android go to Settings => General => Dark theme.
Other Apps
Check Settings in other apps to see whether dark mode is available. If you can’t find a dark mode setting for an app, do an Internet search to see whether dark mode is available for that app.
Your Thoughts
Have you tried using dark mode on your computer, phone and/or tablet? Do you like to use apps in dark mode? Which apps do you wish would get dark mode?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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*Night moon image (edited) courtesy of Antony Petrushko via Flickr and Creative Commons
Yes, I really like dark mode, I have replaced that mode in my chrome browser, display windows explore and some applications on my laptop, thank you for making this article, I also just found out that social media can also use modes dark
Hi Paket, Yes, by enabling dark mode you can ease eye strain and maybe even preserve battery life on your devices. And if you like using it on your computer you may enjoy using dark mode on your phone and/or tablet.
Experiment with using dark mode on apps and in your Chrome browser until you get the effect you want.
iPhone’s invert color is a little weird. It isn’t a working dark mode but solves a little purpose. I tried using it, but pictures in Photos app also inverts the color and beautiful pictures suddenly converts to an horror picture.
Apple needs to deliver a dedicated dark mode theme for iPhone and iPad.
Hi Jignesh, Good news, Apple is introducing a new dark mode in iOS 13 that will be a true dark mode for iPhone. In the fall you’ll be able to try this new feature and see if it works better for you.
Hi Carolyn,
This is great news. I have tried dark mode in Twitter and YouTube and I must say it is much soothing to the eyes. I prefer using the dark mode as compared to the conventional one.
Thanks for sharing, have a good day.
Hi Sajid, That’s great you’re using dark mode for YouTube. It certainly makes the experience of watching videos more pleasing.
The more I use dark mode in different places the more I enjoy it. I hope you continue to enjoy using dark mode, Sajid.
Hello,
Now this is something really cool,
for people like me who use their device at night, will love this blog
just as i did.
Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
Hi Shreya, Yes, dark mode is especially helpful at night when you want to rest your eyes and keep the room dark. I hope you enjoy using dark mode, Shreya.
Hello Carolyn Mam, wow mam It really really helps me, let me explain you first while it is important for, I wake early 4 AM and work on desktop till 8:30 AM then Go to office and again start working on desktop from 10AM to 6 PM. Now come back to my sweet home around 7:30 PM. Now again after starting from 9PM to 11PM or 12’o clock.
Even I don’t care my eyes. Thus, this article really helps me out. Thanks.
Hi Pihu, Yes, if you spend a lot of time looking at screens, you should preserve your eyesight by reducing eyestrain. I hope that dark mode works well for you, Pihu.