For some time now, Android users have begged and pleaded with app developers and Google to implement dark themes. An early beta of Android Pie made it seem like Google might bring a dark theme to the mobile operating system, but, alas, that didn’t (entirely) make it to the primetime.
But thanks to a Googler’s comment on a now hidden Chromium Bug Tracker post (via Android Police), there’s hope that a system-wide Dark Mode might come with the release of Android Q.
Dark mode is an approved Q feature […] The Q team wants to ensure that all preloaded apps support dark mode natively. In order to ship dark mode successfully, we need all UI elements to be ideally themed dark by May 2019.
Google’s decision to focus on a Dark Mode is unsurprising. Over the last several months, we’ve seen a definite uptick in the number of Google-made apps that implemented a dark theme. As we approach the May 2019 deadline set in the Googler’s comment, we could see a majority of the company’s mobile apps add an option to change the look of the user interface.
Plus, Google has already detailed just how good dark mode is for a phone’s battery life. What other reason would the company have not to move forward for
Surprisingly, the Googler actually pointed to a settings path where the system-wide option would be located. Despite calling the feature Dark Mode in one instance and NightMode in another, the path remained Settings -> Display -> Dark Mode/NightMode.
But as Android Police points out, the comment was made back in October 2018. In the months since then, Google could have stopped work on this endeavor. Or, Google could stop the development of such a feature sometime before the launch of Android Q. We will have to wait and see what the search giant decides to do.
Do you want a system-wide Dark Mode within Android? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
