Facebook is introducing a dark mode for mobile.
After launching a dark mode for its desktop interface, Facebook confirms it is testing a dark mode for its mobile apps as well. As first noted by SocialMedia Today, Facebook has made the dark mode available to a very small percentage of people globally, a spokesperson told The Verge in an email Sunday. The mobile version of the dark mode Facebook introduced last month for desktop is “meant to cut down on glare,” particularly in low-light environments, the spokesperson said. There’s no timeline yet for when the dark mode will be available to all mobile users, however.
Users who already have the new dark mode on mobile tweeted screenshots of what it looks like:
It’s a bit surprising it’s taken this long for Facebook to roll out a mobile dark mode; its Instagram, and WhatsApp apps have dark mode already, as does Facebook Messenger. Twitter has had a version of night mode for its Android and iOS apps for some time, and even Google rolled out a dark mode for its app earlier this year.
Low-light and dark mode varieties — which allow users to change the background color of an app window to black— are popular not only because they make apps easier to view for some users and are a bit more aesthetically pleasing, but because most dark mode versions can help preserve a device’s battery life as well.