12
votes
Why is dark mode such a big deal?
Dark mode being added to an app can make headlines on several tech sites. Why do people feel so strongly about dark mode?
Dark mode being added to an app can make headlines on several tech sites. Why do people feel so strongly about dark mode?
The way I see it is that it's not just a small added feature, it's something that affects every aspect of how I use an app or website. It's not just pleasant on the eyes, it's pleasant on the eyes all the time, which, to me, makes it a fairly major update to an app or website.
Because getting your eyes blasted by literally every mobile app, desktop app, and website that only has full headlights extra bright extra white mode really sucks and actually hurts people's eyes and there are people with vision disabilities that are even more adversely affected by the hegemonic bright white mode.
Back when I started reading ebooks on a PDA, I've always found that light grey text on dark background is much more soothing for my eyes.
Dark mode is also great for using apps at night.
But I understand that not all people like dark mode, like my wife.
Adding to what others have quite rightly said, it's also something of a snowball effect - one application with dark mode doesn't mean that much, but if a few of your regular apps/websites support it, it becomes all the more jarring to switch across to one that doesn't.
As for why it's suddenly come to the fore now: Apple added it to iOS and macOS as a systemwide option and we're now seeing the ripple effect of other major software companies updating their theming to match.
I think it's just finally giving (more) attention to screen's lights on our sleep schedules, and probably enough people in the tech industry are up staring at screens at night that dark mode would've inevitably wound up embedded into the OS and eventually the apps.
And tech sites just write about it 'cause they need something to write about.
Anecdotally I feel like a smug hipster about the whole thing on account I had my own personal website back in ~2000ish and coded its Shockwave animation banner to be night-themed or day-themed depending on the user's system clock. It was very gimmicky at the time but I was a teen trying to get familiar with HTML stuff and was surprised no other websites were doing anything like it.
Tilde's theme options is pretty solid.
I'd like to flip this question. Why is it so often such a big deal for apps and sites to include a dark mode? In most cases, it's not that hard to include, and yet, site after site, it gets added in years later as some tertiary feature ...
It's easy to include, but it's hard to get it right. A lot of dark themes just look bad. And only some people think it's a necessary feature, most can do without it as long as they browse during the day.
I don't understand it either. Is my phone just not very bright, or is it because I'm not a mole person that 'day mode' looks just fine?
You tell me! I actually was all in with time based color adjustment till night shift style warmer colors in the evening. That made sense to me. But I actually had to turn dark mode off on iOS because I find it weirdly unpleasant. White on black glimmer is just way harder for me to focus on than a white background with the stuff that matters in black. I think, as a day-active species, we’re way better at doing “default background is bright, details in front are dark” than the other way round. I also never use computers in an absolutely pitch black environment, even as a night owl I like having a lamp provide a comfortable base brightness in my work environment.
As for the original question... it’s a big deal because it requires everyone to play along, if you have a single bright app, it will become even more glaringly bright after switching from a dark mode app.
TIL there's a dark mode for tildes... And also themes! Nice. And answering your question, for one dark modes tends to be easy for your eyes, not to mention less battery consumption made by for smartphone/tablet's screen and last but not least they're cool!