By: Nick Gambino
Dimmed or dark layouts have become quite trendy over the last year or so. Apple, Google and others have started offering a dark theme that would give users’ eyeballs a rest from staring at bright screens all day. While Twitter has flirted with it since 2016, it’s now the latest platform to fully turn to the dark side.
Twitter announced the new “Lights out” mode (via tweet, of course) on Thursday, acknowledging that users have been asking for it. “It was dark,” the tweet says. “You asked for darker!”
It was dark. You asked for darker! Swipe right to check out our new dark mode. Rolling out today. pic.twitter.com/6MEACKRK9K
— Twitter (@Twitter) March 28, 2019
And they’re right. They already offered a dark mode, and have since 2016, but their dark mode wasn’t really what people were looking for. This dark mode turned everything to a dark shade of blue, which is not the same thing as true black. To understand why true black as an option is important to people, you have to understand another main reason people are requesting a dark theme – battery life.
Almost every major smartphone these days sports an OLED screen. OLED screens treat black differently than previous displays. OLED doesn’t light up any pixels that are true black, only lighting up true color. This means your battery isn’t working so hard to light up every spec of your display all the time. This results in more battery life, and longer battery life = happy smartphone user.
As I mentioned before, less strain on your battery isn’t the only benefit to a true dark mode, it’s also way less straining on the eyes. Not too long ago, Apple released a dark mode for the Mac, and while I was skeptical at first, it’s proven to be a lot easier for a guy like me who spends 23 hours a day in front of his computer.
You can turn “Lights out” on in your Twitter app by tapping your profile pic in the top left corner and then selecting “Settings and privacy.” Navigate to “Display and sound” and slide the “Dark mode” on. It should switch on “Lights out” by default. You can still choose to just use “Dim” mode which is the dark theme they’ve had for a couple years.
You also have the option of selecting “Automatic dark mode” which will automatically turn dark mode on at night and off in the morning.
So there you have it, a new Twitter feature that is both a battery life and eyeball saver.
