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Chrome Dark Mode on Android

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Chrome Dark Mode on Android

Dark Mode (or Dark Theme) is an excellent feature for web browsing that people love to use. Whether you are accessing it on Android, Windows, iPhone, or other devices, the dark mode relaxes your eyes, especially at night. If you are using Android, you might know that Android started using material design since Lollipop, which replaces the entire user interface with a thick, flat coat of white paint. This day OLED and AMOLED have more widely accessible; Google has no facility to disable the light mode in its Android 10 (Android Q) and enable dark mode on Android.

Chrome Dark Mode on Android

However, if your Android phone is running on below Android 10 and you what to enable dark mode in Google’s Chrome browser separately, you can also do this. Several direct or indirect settings or methods are available to enable dark mode (or theme) in the Chrome browser on Android.

The two most straightforward methods to enable dark theme in the Chrome browser on Android are using the dark mode extension for your Android device and the other is enabling dark theme on your Chrome browser itself.

The simplest method to enable Chrome dark mode are:

  1. Enable dark mode using Chrome settings
  2. Enable dark mode using dark them extensions for Android

Activate Chrome Dark mode on Android using its settings

Before reaching and enabling the dark mode in Chrome on your Android phone, ensure your device is running on Android 5 (Lollipop) or later versions and supports dark mode. The following are the step to enable Chrome’s dark mode on Android via settings:

  1. Launch the Chrome browser on your Android.
  2. Tap on the More menu option (3 dots) at the top right corner of the browser.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android
  3. From the list of various menu options, tap on Settings.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android
  4. Now, scroll to the Settings screen and tap on the Themes.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android
  5. Finally, select Dark to enable a dark theme.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android

Now, close your Chrome browser and relaunch it to reflect dark mode. If you want to change your Chrome theme to default (Light), follow the steps above and choose the Light. Besides this, Chrome will automatically choose Dark or Light mode based on your settings if you select the System Default option.

Enable dark mode using dark theme extensions for Android

Method 1:

To enable dark them in Chrome on Android using the dark theme extension, ensure your Chrome browser’s version has 74 or later. Once you confirm your Android Chrome version proceed with the following given steps:

  1. Launch the Chrome browser and type “chrome://flags” in the address bar. This screen is used to enable experimental features in the Chrome browser.
  2. When the Chrome experimental screen opens, search for the “Android Chrome UI dark mode.” You will even see the searching option without entering the complete phrase.
  3. Tap on the Default option and select Enable.
  4. A pop-up message appears, showing your change will affect the next time you launch the Chrome browser. Tap on the “Relaunch Now.”
  5. Now, navigate to Chrome Settings and select Dark Mode.
  6. Turn the Dark mode toggle button on. If the settings option does not appear, close your Google Chrome browser and launch again.
  7. Now you will see some of the elements of the Chrome browser, including the start-up screen, menu option (3-dots), Settings, etc., displayed in gray color. It is suitable for relieving your eyes and also reduces battery consumption in case of AMOLED/OLED display on Android.

Keep in mind the above method to enable dark mode in Chrome will not affect the entire content of websites.

Method 2:

If you also want to change the entire Chrome screen, you must set the dark mode using another Chrome flag, “Force Dark Mode for Web Contents” and “Darken websites checkbox in themes settings.” Most of its steps are similar to above method 1 for enabling Chrome’s dark mode on Android. Here are the steps to enable dark mode using these flags:

  1. Launch the Chrome browser and type “chrome://flags” in the address bar.
  2. Now type the ‘dark’ or complete search keyword in the search bar, and you will see two different options: “Force Dark Mode for Web Contents” and “Darken websites checkbox in themes settings” to enable dark mode.
  3. Tap on the drop-down box (default) of both options and select the option Enabled.
  4. Now, close the browser and restart the app.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android

Method 3:

An alternative method to activating the dark theme in Chrome is enabling the “Android web contents dark mode.” Here are the steps for it:

  1. Launch the browser and type “chrome://flags” in the address bar. Now search for the “Android web contents dark mode.
  2. Tab on the drop-down box, and select the Enable
  3. Now relaunch the Android Chrome browser just like the above method.

Note that this method is independent of the dark mode settings of Chrome, i.e., it works irrespective of whether the setting’s dark mode is enabled.

The flag “Android web content dark mode,” in fact, reverses the colors of the website that may be conflicting with the result or unclear to the color of the media. In addition, some web elements may not be visible on websites correctly due to the incomplete blackness of the screen.

How to enable Chrome Dark mode on iPhone

You can also enable Chrome dark mode if you are an iPhone user. On iPhone, you can enable Dark mode by activating the system-wide Dark mode feature. This feature is available on devices running on iOS 13 and later. Following are the steps to activate Chrome dark mode on iPhone:

  1. Launch the Settings app on your device and tap on Display & Brightness.
  2. Select the Dark option and relaunch the Chrome browser to see the dark mode.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android

Other than settings, you can access the dark mode from Control Center on your iPhone device. Open the Control Center setting panel and click on the Dark Mode button to activate or deactivate.

Navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness and select Automatic to enable dark mode automatically after sunset. Navigate Settings > Display & Brightness for a specific time and set a schedule for Dark Mode.

How to enable Chrome Dark mode on a Windows PC

Now you can enable the dark mode on Windows PCs running on Windows 10 and later. Here are the steps for it:

  1. Tap on the Start (Windows) key and navigate Settings > Personalisation.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android
  2. Go to the color section and select the Dark theme option as the default app mode.
    Chrome Dark Mode on Android
  3. Finally, open the Chrome browser to take a dark experience.

How to enable Chrome Dark Mode on a Mac

Like iPhone, Apple gives a feature to set system-wide Dark mode for Chrome on Mac that runs on macOS 10.14 or later.

  1. Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
  2. Now, click on the General and select Dark theme from
  3. Finally, open the Chrome browser to see Dark mode.

Check if you are in Dark theme or using Incognito mode:

Other than the Dark mode on Chrome, the browser opens a dark home screen when you open it in Incognito mode. To confirm, you are using a dark theme on Chrome, not Incognito mode.

  1. Launch the Chrome browser.
  2. Now, check whether you are on Incognito mode or not. You will see the Incognito mode icon at the top in Incognito mode.

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