Facebook is introducing a dark mode for mobile

Users reported seeing the dark mode interface on iOS

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

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.

Facebook has been slow to introduce support for Dark Mode to all of its apps, but it has made some progress since its introduction in iOS 13, with Facebook Lite, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger apps for iOS and iPadOS all working with the iOS feature. While the main Facebook app has lagged behind with offering a Dark Mode to users, that is finally being addressed.

After the discovery by some users of the feature’s availability, Facebook confirmed to SocialMediaToday on Friday that it is officially out, but it is only usable by “a small percentage of users globally right now.” It seems that Facebook is slowly rolling the feature out, as it customarily does over several weeks, to ensure it continues to work without any major issues as more people gain access.

Once active on a user’s account, Dark Mode can be configured from the main menu, under a section within Settings & Privacy called “Dark Mode.” Within that menu, users can select to enable or disable the dark appearance, or to have it match iOS’ appearance, including automatically changing for sunrises and sunsets.

This is not the only way users can browse Facebook via Dark Mode. Account holders have access to a similar setting on the browser-based version, for manually selecting the dark or light appearance. It has also been in testing on Android, with a small sampling of users having the color-changing facility in test releases since the start of 2020.