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Dark Theme coming to Android (Oreo, Pie, Q)

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  17671 
#1 ·
Hello,

So you probably heard about Dark Mode or Dark Theme coming to Androids. yeah some of you are probably thinking big whoop, I have apps that already have a toggle that turns on dark mode. Yeah you might but those are only a small handful of apps which have their own independant Dark Mode Toggle, and they have to be written that way from the developer and have to be toggled on and off somewhere from within the app, yeah it works but not all app developers are on board with this until now. Google Android, has finally made an OFFICIAL Dark Theme standard... which is toggled from the quick settings tile, they have already released a few apps for now with the Official Dark theme, and more and more apps are on the way which will implement this.

Dark Theme is actually easier on the eyes at night time and also saves battery power, or as my kids say... "Saves Hydro Daddy" lol. The best thing about this is you do not have to go looking thru every app to find the dark theme toggle, you can change it from within the system settings menu and any apps that have been written with this in mind will respect the system setting and turn dark when you open them, or will go back to bright if you turn off the toggle.

Right now, it is only available on Android Oreo (8), Android Pie (9) and the not yet released Android Q (10). Those of you with Nugget, sorry your SOL. In fact its officially supported on Android Pie (9) at this time, but can be turned on in Android Oreo but not easily at this time. I happen to have Android Pie (9) on my Samsung Android Phone, and its a nice update, it works beautiful. Almost ALL the samsung core apps recognise the Dark Theme toggle, and turn dark. the only ones that do not yet is the Samsung Galaxy Store and Samsung Themes Store. There is also only one Google App that recognizes the universal Dark Theme toggle right now, its the Google Photos app, which is awesome. Other google apps may have their own independant dark theme toggle, but soon will be re-written to recognize the system wide flag and follow it. so if you have an older phone that running on Nugget or older, you will still have apps that have dark theme but its not a sysem wide implementation at this time sorry but that's the best you will get on that os.

Any Questions?
 
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#4 ·
I just checked my A8, and they keep changing the name, first it was dark mode, then they changed it to dark theme, now its called night mode, hmm, can they friggin make up their mind? i guess because the Android Q firmware is not official yet what ever name they pick in Android Q will be the official name they call the "dark theme" for other softwares like Pie and Oreo I guess. Buty yeah the night mode on the A8 is sick. Got to try Google Photos app with the night mode its cool, but definitely its worth waiting for other apps from google to follow suit.
 
#6 ·
Either way, its here NOW and if you have a phone with PIE whether it be a Samsung or Pixel or maybe even LG, then your in luck and once more apps become dark mode compliant I will post about it here.

Just in, I heard the Googles Search app (simply called google) the beta version of it actually has Dark mode enabled I have a beta copy of that app but mine is probably older as they prolly rolling out the beta in batches so I did not get the beta with dark mode but after reading up and seeing pics of it it looks cool. I can confirm google photos production app is dark mode compatible, and some menus of the google drive support dark them but the entire app is still not fully dark enabled, more to come soon
 
#8 ·
Im not sure what kind of Pixel phone you have but they DO have a system level dark mode, just the "switch" to toggle it on and off is not been implemented but there is a way to enable it in the developer options. https://9to5google.com/2018/12/17/android-dark-mode-theme-pie/ Just because the switch to toggle it on and off is missing does NOT mean it does not have it in the system level, it does have it in the system level cus its built into the pie software. The part that controls it is part of the UI interface which is independent of pie, its manufacturer related, which perhaps does not have the user friendly toggle, so yes it does have it just not easily accessible. and based on how fast google is rolling this out, they could easily release an updated ui in a week, month, or 6 months or when ever which will have the toggle.
 
#9 ·
From that article (emphasis mine):
There are two primary methods at the moment for enabling a dark mode across the system on Android Pie. First, let’s go over the user-facing option. To access this setting, you’ll first need to access the Settings menu on your device. Once there, find the Display section and tap that. On this page, tapping Advanced and scrolling to the bottom should reveal the Device Theme option. Switching this from “Automatic” to “Dark” should switch over some elements of the interface.

Unfortunately, though, this setting doesn’t apply a dark mode everywhere it’s currently available. For now, it simply adjusts areas such as the quick settings menu, volume slider, and certain other places including the Google Discover feed. Android’s proper “Night Mode,” however, does more.
Once you’ve enabled Android’s Night Mode, where does it actually deliver a dark theme? You won’t find it system-wide, not yet anyway, but it does arrive in a handful of places.
Full system level dark mode will come with Android Q. It is not available on Pixels in Pie, and Google will not be rolling it out retroactively.
 
#10 ·
I just checked, and ALL of the google pixel phones will be upgradable to Android Q in the near future when it is released, even the models currently running Nugget will be upgradable, so ya they may not get dark mode with nugget or Pie but they will see it when they upgrade to Q or what ever they decide to call the official name. So they have to wait, Samsung Androids can get it NOW by upgrading to Pie, which is cool, gives us an early taste. I don't think Q will ever come out for my phone I currently have cus I already had the OS updated 3 different versions so in essence thats probably one of the reasons they added it to pie. cool, koodos on them. good stuff google and Samsung for your hard work, much props
 
#12 ·
Yes it will make google apps dark too. I confirmed it works on my a8. I mentioned this already ya know?. Google has to re-write the apps with dark mode global flag in mind for this to work. The existing apps dont all have this yet. But slowly they are releasing them like that.
 
#15 ·
Google Chrome for Android now supports system wide dark mode flag. I just updated the google chrome browser to the latest vers on the app store and when i opened it, it followed my system wide dark theme prefrence. It has a themes menu for light, dark, and system default. Pretty neat eh? Keep em coming android!
 
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