Google’s dark mode rollout for Gmail has not really been smooth. The same actually goes for Play Store’s dark mode, but we’ll talk about that a bit later.
The dark mode is finally rolling out to all Gmail users who are using an Android 10 smartphone. That feature has landed on our devices, while we’ve received several reports other people received it as well.
Dark mode for Gmail initially started rolling out on September 11
Now, back on September 11, some Android 10 users started receiving the dark mode for Gmail. Not long after that, on September 24, Google officially announced that a server-side rollout has begun.
More users started getting the update, but then, it went away, basically. The company probably wanted to fix some bugs before it continues the rollout, and it took them a bit of time to do it.
Well, it seems like the problem has been amended now. The update is rolling out to Android 10 users once again. We’re not sure when will it hit devices with older versions of Android. That will probably happen soon, though.
This is also a server-side update, which means that no physical update is necessary. If you are running a system dark mode on your phone, your Gmail will simply switch to the dark mode automatically, once the feature lands on your device.
Manual switch is available
Once the feature becomes available on your device, you will also see a manual switch in settings. So, even if you have a light theme set on your phone, and want to use a dark theme on Gmail only, you can.
All you have to do is open up the Gmail app, and swipe from the left to open the hamburger menu. At that point, scroll down until you see the “General settings” option. Once you tap that, you’ll see the ‘Theme’ option at the top.
In that menu, you will be able to select manual ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ themes, or let Gmail adapt to your system theme.
Google has had similar issues with the Play Store. The dark theme rolled out to some users, and then it disappeared until the company fixed some bugs. The Play Store dark theme rollout continued a while back, though.
Google had rolled out a dark theme to a number of its applications. Pretty much every major Google app has a dark theme now. Those apps include: YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Play Store, Google Keep aka Keep Notes, Contacts, Phone, and so on.
Many other developers decided to follow in Google’s footsteps, and release a dark theme for their apps in the last year or so. Instagram is definitely worth pointing out as an example, as it received the dark theme quite recently.