How to enable Dark Mode on your Android smartphone

Dark mode draws 43% lesser power at full brightness compared to “normal mode” in the YouTube app.

Here’s how you can manually activate Dark theme on your smartphone. (AFP)

Google finally got onboard with dark theme with its latest Android iteration, Android Pie v9.0+. As the name implies, Dark Mode reverses the white background to black which is said to be more comforting to eyes. Google has now confirmed that the Dark Mode also helps increase battery life on phones.

During a presentation at the 2018 Android Dev summit, Google acknowledged that the brightness affects the battery life with white colour drawing the most power, SlashGear reported.

It is worth noting that Google has gradually white colour-themed Material design to almost all of its major services including YouTube, Google Assistant and Chrome browser. The company also admitted that it was wrong in encouraging developers to use the colour white for their applications.

Dark mode draws 43% lesser power at full brightness compared to "normal mode" in the YouTube app, according to Business Insider.

If you are using a phone with Android Pie software, here's how you can manually enable Dark Mode on your device.

1. Go to Settings on your phone.

2. Tap on Display > Advanced > Device Theme

3. Tap on Dark.

Android Pie allows users to change UI theme (HT Photo/Screenshot)

Android Pie allows users to change UI theme (HT Photo/Screenshot)

Note that changing to Dark Mode only converts the UI colour to black background. You may have to manually enable Dark Mode on different applications. For instance, YouTube users can manually activate Dark Mode by following these steps.

1. Open YouTube app on your phone.

2. Tap on profile icon > Settings > General

3. Tap on the toggle to enable Dark Theme

4. Exit the settings.