How to use Pixel’s new Expanded dark mode and force all your apps to go dark

With Android QPR2, which began rolling out a couple of days in the past in early December, Google is bringing a slew of cool new options to Android — particularly its Pixel telephones. One in all these is a characteristic I’m certain a lot of you could have been praying for: a pressured darkish mode that applies to most apps, even when they don’t assist a darkish mode out of the field.

The brand new characteristic known as Expanded dark mode, and right here’s how one can allow it in your Pixel telephone in addition to a couple of examples of the way it works.

Step 1: Be sure your Pixel is suitable

Earlier than we get began, it’s essential to be sure to have a suitable telephone. All Pixels that have received the Android QPR2 update ought to have the brand new Expanded darkish mode out of the field. This contains each Google telephone because the Pixel 6 collection. I haven’t personally examined all of those out, but it surely’s accessible on my Pixel 10 Professional XL, Pixel 9a, Pixel 9 Professional, and my husband’s Pixel 7 Professional. Right here’s the whole checklist:

Step 2: Set up the December replace

If you wish to pressure your light-mode-only apps to modify to a darker theme, you need to be certain that your Pixel telephone is operating the December replace. Underneath Settings > About Telephone > Construct quantity, you must see a quantity that begins with BP4A.251205.006. If not, go to Settings > System > Software program updates > System replace and Examine for replace, then anticipate it to obtain and set up.

That is the simplest one. Go to Settings > Show & contact > Darkish theme and swap from the Commonplace to the Expanded darkish mode. Be sure Use darkish theme is turned on or that there’s a Schedule to show it on and off mechanically.

Google is advertising and marketing this characteristic as an accessibility and readability enchancment, not an answer to lazy builders. This could let you know what it’s essential to learn about it: It’s not foolproof, and app builders ought to nonetheless take some time to implement a local darkish theme of their apps. That can at all times be a greater resolution than a pressured darkish look with unoptimized distinction, graphics, and iconography.

However when builders are lazy or cussed — whats up, Amazon! — this ought to be a superb stop-gap resolution to keep away from getting blinded by an excellent vibrant app once you’re studying in the dead of night (or at any time of day, for you forever-dark-themers). In my checks, I discovered it was fairly hit-and-miss and labored greatest with apps that don’t have a ton of graphics or embedded internet pages.

For example, the toggle does diddly squat for the Amazon app or my native banking app, as a result of I think these two are constructed utilizing internet wrappers. It did, nonetheless, work properly for Transavia, changing your entire UI and protecting all the pieces readable and usable. Examine the screenshots above.

Most apps with a map, although, like Citymapper and the French IDF Mobilités, didn’t profit rather a lot from the toggle because the map itself is a picture, and it was left alone. The remainder of the interface flipped, however the map remained white, which created a little bit of an unpleasant distinction.

Nevertheless, that is nonetheless generally higher than the colour inversion toggle in Accessibility since that one doesn’t differentiate between photographs and UI components and inverts all the pieces, typically creating an unpleasant and unattainable to decipher interface. It’s additionally a bit extra dependable than the Override force-dark toggle underneath Developer choices as a result of it appears to work on extra apps.

After a few days with it, I feel this is a wonderful thought if the apps you employ profit from it. For me, although, many of the massive mild app culprits embody graphics or icons that appear to be a confused chimera of sunshine and darkish underneath Expanded darkish mode. I’m returning to the Commonplace darkish mode, however you must give it a attempt to see whether or not it really works to your collection of apps or not.