WhatsApp Dark mode is finally available for both iPhone and Android users, almost a year after its inclusion in beta testing. Except for offering a pure black and white color scheme, the company owned by Facebook has developed a dark gray backdrop with off-white colored elements to reduce glare and enhance contrast and readability. Users on iOS 13 and Android 10 can discover the Dark mode by activating it from their device’s system settings. Furthermore, users on older iOS and Android versions will need to manually allow dark mode by going through the WhatsApp app’s theme preferences.
The primary purpose of Dark mode is to reduce eye fatigue and use colors that are closer to the system defaults on iPhone and Android, respectively” — instead of merely showing only black and white tones.
Check out: WhatsApp’s Dark Mode offers additional Solid Colors for Android.
WhatsApp served on the Dark mode for quite some time. Looking at previous news, the functionality had been in the works since at least March last year— months before the official iOS 13 release that introduced a system-wide dark mode to iPhone and iPod touch models. A few previous beta updates indicated the new experience as well. Furthermore, to tease the launch of the highly anticipated movie, WhatsApp has recently updated its profile photos across all its social media channels.
WhatsApp’s team has concentrated on user readability and information structure when working on the new update, as explained in a blog post. The fundamental goal that the company wanted was to help users focus their attention on WhatsApp when using the Dark mode on each phone. It was achieved through the use of color and other elements of design in line with Dark mode.
To offer insight into how the Dark mode performs and how to use it in your daily schedule, the WhatsApp team has created a video called “Hello Darkness,” featuring a soundtrack by American musician Paul Simon’s previously unreleased version of The Sound of Silence.
WhatsApp users on iOS 13 and Android 10 will be eligible to use the newly added dark mode by switching from the app settings to the system-wide dark mode. The new experience will be available on Android 9 Pie and earlier versions by going to WhatsApp Settings > Chats> Theme > Dark. However, it is worth pointing out that the iPhone user will not have the new experience of previous iOS versions.