How to enable WhatsApp Dark Mode on your Android 10 smartphone

Dark Mode is officially here. After staying in testing for more than a year, WhatsApp officially launched the feature for its 2 billion users around the world.

WhatsApp says the Dark Mode is aimed at reducing eye strain in lowlight environments. The Facebook-owned company revealed that the combination of pure black and white creates high contrast which can further cause eye fatigue. This is why, according to WhatsApp, the Dark Mode on the app has dark gray background and off-white colour. WhatsApp claims the new colour scheme reduces the glare and helps improve contrast and readability.

"When choosing colors, we wanted to minimize eye fatigue and use colors that are closer to the system defaults on iPhone and Android respectively. We wanted to help users easily focus their attention on each screen. We did this by using color and other design elements to make sure the most important information stands out," WhatsAapp further explained how it designed the Dark Mode.

The WhatsApp Dark Mode feature is available to all Android and iOS users. This includes users with iPhones running iOS 13, and Android (Android 10, Android 9 and below).  

Here's how to enable WhatsApp Dark Mode on Android 10

Android 10 allows users to activate Dark Mode through system settings. WhatsApp users can simply use the default system settings' Dark Mode to get automatically enabled.

Step 1: Download and install the latest version of your WhatsApp on Google Play Store.

Step 2: Open Settings on your phone.

Step 3: Open display, turn on Dark Mode.

Step 4: WhatsApp will automatically transition to Dark Mode.

Step 5: You can also change Dark Mode manually on WhatsApp. Open WhatsApp's Settings.

Step 5: Open chats and then go to Theme.

Step 6: Choose between "System default", "light", or "Dark" as per your preference.