Yet another Google-made application has just received dark mode, Google Contacts. This application has received Google’s material design refresh a while back, but the dark mode was not a part of that refresh. Well, Google Contacts 3.2 brings the dark mode which can be enabled in the settings of this app, simply hit the hamburger menu in the upper-left corner, and there you’ll see an option to enable dark mode. We’ve installed this app on our Xiaomi Mi 5 unit, and the dark mode was on by default, while the “Dark theme in device Settings is on” message popped up for us. Well, if you see this message, then you should head to Developer options, and disable Night mode… though that is not necessary if you’re aiming for dark mode either way… you’re getting it one way or the other. Google Contacts 3.2 update is already rolling out via the Google Play Store, and if it is not available for your device just yet, it will be in the near future, as this is a staged rollout, as per usual.
Background: Google had rolled out its material design refresh to Google Contacts back in August, which made Google Contacts one of the first apps to receive such a change. The company further polished the design of the app with Google Contacts 3.1 update in October, and now they’ve included the last piece of the puzzle in it. Google had released dark mode for a number of its applications already, including (Android) Messages and YouTube, to name a few, while a number of additional apps are expected to get dark mode in the near future. We still did not hear anything regarding the dark mode update for Google Photos or Gmail, even though such a feature is highly requested, but considering that Google Photos already got a fresh coat of paint, and Gmail is about to in the near future, it is safe to expect that the dark mode will be included with an update at some point. Gmail still did not get the new material design, though, so Google Photos may be the first in line to get the dark mode, even though it’s possible that Google will roll out both the design refresh and the dark mode to Gmail at the same time… we can only guess at this point.
Impact: Dark mode is definitely not a huge feature or anything of the sort, but some people simply prefer it. A ton of third-party applications out there support dark modes, and it was about time for Google to do the same. Dark mode actually helps with battery life on smartphones which sports OLED displays, quite a bit actually, which is something Google admitted recently, so it’s always nice to have that option in device settings. Dark moe is not for everyone, of course, and some people prefer predominantly white-colored applications, but as already mentioned, having options is nice, and if it’s useful in terms of battery at the same time, well… that definitely doesn’t hurt either.