Blessed be the gods of the dark mode, that feature which helps all of us that are constantly staring at our devices to preserve our corneas and reduce that horrific sensation of burning eyeballs. Dark mode is rapidly becoming a feature that’s almost expected in most apps and while Facebook may have rather recently updated the desktop client for their social media platform to feature a dark mode, the mobile app has unfortunately been left high and dry. Yet change is looming as it seems a very small percentage of users have been blessed with the option to switch to a dark variant on their mobile devices. It’s about damn time.
First reported by SocialMedia Today and then confirmed by a spokesperson to The Verge, dark mode has begun to roll out to a small selection of users around the world. With no timeline on when all Facebook mobile users can expect the dark mode update to eventually reach their devices, the spokesperson was kind enough to clarify that the purpose of the low-light setting is “to cut down on glare”. Well, thanks for clearing up that confusion, I guess. If you want an idea of what the mode looks like, some fortunate folks have shared screenshots and it looks…yeah, looks like a dark mode. I don’t know what else you want me to say here.
Facebook appears to be rolling out Dark Mode… https://t.co/qSfDa8d51e
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) June 26, 2020
I’m actually surprised at how long it’s taken Facebook to implement a dark mode for their app given that similar settings for Instagram and WhatsApp, both apps owned by Facebook, have been around for ages now. Hell, even Facebook Messenger has had a dark mode for some time now. Yet given the increasing popularity of the dark mode setting, it makes sense that Facebook would want to finally implement it in its main app. It’s just weird that it took it so long.
