Dark (or night) mode is quite common these days. Several apps, sites and browsers have adopted them.
For browsers, the mode is mainly activated in two ways. Some browsers just invert the colors of web page, which affects the site’s design in some cases. The second approach involves informing sites about the dark mode, once it is activated so they can use another theme.
Chrome’s development team recently announced support for the “prefers-color-scheme” browser feature, indicating the implementation of second approach for supporting dark themes.
Apple was the first company to roll out this feature for Safari 12.1 on macOS Mojave. Mozilla has also hopped on the bandwagon and announced the feature for its upcoming Firefox 67 release.
What this feature basically does is that, it enables different sites to define specific styles for dark mode. Once the user enables dark mode on the browser, those styles are automatically triggered.
According to Chrome team, development of the feature has already begun. The team also provided a few details regarding the working of the feature on different platforms.
On Android Q, MacOS and Windows, the dark mode will be enabled via system setting. On other platforms — force-dark-mode will do the trick. In addition to that, there will also be an option in Chrome for Android to override the system setting.
Moreover, the “prefers-color-scheme” feature on Android WebView will serve the same purpose as “no-preference” in case force darkening is applied, to avoid double implementation of the dark styles.
Thus, it’s high time that sites start to define their own dark themes before Chrome implements this feature. As of now, there’s no set timeline for the feature's release.
Read next: Users Can Now Enable Reader Mode on Desktop Version of Google Chrome
Featured photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg / Getty Images
For browsers, the mode is mainly activated in two ways. Some browsers just invert the colors of web page, which affects the site’s design in some cases. The second approach involves informing sites about the dark mode, once it is activated so they can use another theme.
Chrome’s development team recently announced support for the “prefers-color-scheme” browser feature, indicating the implementation of second approach for supporting dark themes.
Apple was the first company to roll out this feature for Safari 12.1 on macOS Mojave. Mozilla has also hopped on the bandwagon and announced the feature for its upcoming Firefox 67 release.
What this feature basically does is that, it enables different sites to define specific styles for dark mode. Once the user enables dark mode on the browser, those styles are automatically triggered.
Added styles on https://t.co/Cafp43rXH3 for dark mode users on Safari Technology Preview 68 using prefers-color-scheme. Looking forward to seeing widespread adoption of level 5 draft media features including prefers-contrast and light-level. pic.twitter.com/U2aoDlN1zn— Jordan Moore (@jordanmoore) November 2, 2018
According to Chrome team, development of the feature has already begun. The team also provided a few details regarding the working of the feature on different platforms.
On Android Q, MacOS and Windows, the dark mode will be enabled via system setting. On other platforms — force-dark-mode will do the trick. In addition to that, there will also be an option in Chrome for Android to override the system setting.
Moreover, the “prefers-color-scheme” feature on Android WebView will serve the same purpose as “no-preference” in case force darkening is applied, to avoid double implementation of the dark styles.
Thus, it’s high time that sites start to define their own dark themes before Chrome implements this feature. As of now, there’s no set timeline for the feature's release.
Read next: Users Can Now Enable Reader Mode on Desktop Version of Google Chrome
Featured photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg / Getty Images
