Facebook Announces WhatsApp Dark Mode

After months of anticipation, users are finally being treated to the most requested feature on WhatsApp – dark mode.

Love it or hate it, dark mode is not just a fad. It’s much less tiring for your eyes (especially if you stare at screens all day) and prevents “those awkward moments when your phone lights up the room” at night. It’s WhatsApp’s most requested feature, and it’s (finally) here.

Facebook this week announced the rollout of a new dark mode on WhatsApp, designed specifically to “reduce eye strain in low light environments.”

As part of its process of designing dark mode, Facebook says it focused on two important areas:

1. Readability: A critical consideration when choosing colors was to help minimize eye fatigue. Therefore, Facebook decided to use colors “that are closer to the system defaults” on both iPhone and Android.

2. Information Hierarchy: Facebook wants users to be able to focus their attention on specific screens. Therefore, dark mode uses certain colors (and design elements) to make important information stand out.

After months of waiting, WhatsApp users can breathe a sigh of relief as the most requested feature is rolling out – dark mode!

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Dark mode is now rolling out, within the next few days, on the latest version of its app on both Android and iOS.

WhatsApp users on Android 10 and iOS 13 can now turn on dark mode in their system settings, while those using Android 9 and below can do so in WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Theme and select Dark.