Many readers are familiar with the discomfort that comes while surfing the Internet with the lights off, when the eyes quickly begin to hurt from the light design of the sites. They have long come up with a working solution to the problem - a dark theme, which has recently appeared in Google Chrome, both in the Android version of the browser and in the desktop version of the web browser. By switching the operating mode, eye strain is significantly reduced and the comfort of using a computer or smartphone in general increases. We have outlined all the details about enabling night mode and its features below.
What is dark theme in Google Chrome
Dark theme in Google Chrome is a mode in which most light colors in the design are inverted into dark tones. Most often, websites use white or a very light shade. If you change the mode to a dark background in Google Chrome, black and its variations will be used instead. Previously black text will become light (white or gray). The technology is quite complex, because the browser must learn to distinguish between all the elements and know what needs to be changed and what to leave unchanged, so the function appeared in the Google browser quite recently.
We also dim Chrome DevTools
Chrome's developer tools (launched by pressing F12) can also be dimmed. In the menu you need to select “Settings”, and then in the “Theme” section select dark.
You'll get something like this.
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Author: Andrey “zeleboba” Matveev
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How to enable dark theme in Google Chrome on your computer
To make a dark theme in Google Chrome on a computer, we can use three methods, each of which is associated with certain features.
Switching mode using Windows settings
If you are interested not only in the dark theme in Google Chrome, but also in the system-wide night mode, this solution is the best. After changing the settings, Windows will try to put all applications, both system ones and those from third-party developers, into black mode. There are still few programs that can boast of this option, but Google Chrome can already boast a black theme with support for system-wide settings.
How to make Google Chrome dark:
- Through Start or using the Win + I , go to “Settings”.
- Open the “Personalization” item.
- And go to the “Colors” tab.
- Scroll down and in the “Select application mode” column, click on the “Dark” option.
Google Chrome will be able to immediately install the black theme after switching the mode, you don’t even need a reboot, all changes happen in real time. Now most of the design has dark colors.
Installing a dark theme for Google Chrome using built-in browser tools
Night theme for Google Chrome is still an experimental feature, the functionality of which the developer cannot guarantee. In practice, the mode works well even now, but not on all sites. On web resources with complex design, design issues may occur.
How to enable dark mode in Google Chrome:
- Copy the link chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark .
- Paste it into the address bar and press Enter.
- In the very first item, highlighted in yellow, click on the “Default” button and select “Enabled”.
- Click on the button below “Relaunch” or manually restart the browser.
There is another variation of the same method - controlling the experimental mode through shortcut flags. We can make 2 shortcuts: one will launch Google Chrome with a dark theme, and the second with a normal design.
How to enable dark theme in Google Chrome:
- Copy the Chrome browser shortcut and create a copy of it on your desktop.
- Select one shortcut, hold down Alt and press Enter.
- At the end of the “Object” line, add the entry -force-dark-mode -enable-features=WebUIDarkMode , all this should go separated by a space from the standard path to the file.
- Click on the “Apply” button and close the window.
Now, if you want to use a browser with a night background, just launch it through this shortcut.
Install dark mode in Google Chrome using extensions
The Google store has many add-ons and themes that perform similar tasks - turning on a black background on websites. Their main advantage is that we can manually choose which site to change the design on and which to leave the original appearance. Some plugins also allow you to choose your own background color.
How to install Google Chrome dark theme via extension:
- Go to the Google store and install the “Dark theme for any site” add-on.
- Open a tab with a web portal, for example, VKontakte or YouTube.
- Click on the black square in the extensions area.
- In the line with the site address, click on the image of the eye.
There are also many highly specialized add-ons, such as a dark theme for VK or YouTube in Google Chrome. However, using them is not so convenient, since the plugins only work on one or several sites.
How to enable dark theme
If you have an old version of the browser, be sure to update it to the latest one, and only then start testing the dark theme. After the latest updates, a dark background can be configured not only on a computer, but also on a smartphone.
On the computer
Since the black background is in test mode and you can’t simply turn it on in the browser settings, there is a proven way to test this innovation using another method. It consists of changing the system settings - changing the background, after which Chrome itself will adapt to them. This instruction only works with the Windows 10 platform:
- Go to Start.
- Go to the "Options" section.
- Next, select “Personalization”.
- In the “Background” item, select the desired color – “Black” and you can immediately see the final result in the preview window.
- Next, go to “Colors” and set the color of the elements on top of the black theme, then scroll down, and in the line “Select the default application mode”, set “Dark”.
Automatically setting a black background in the menu of the Chrome web browser itself is available only to owners of MacBooks with platform 10.14 and higher.
When you confirm all the changes and your desktop, along with other sections of the computer, turns black, you can go to Chrome and see the same picture. If you are not satisfied with this option - when all the backgrounds on the computer are black and not just the browser, then it will be more convenient to install an additional extension in Chrome in the form of a dark theme. This can be done through the functions button in the browser (in the upper right corner), “Additional tools”, “Extensions”.
In the mobile version of the browser
How are things going with the mobile version of Google Chrome for smartphones? Here, too, it is possible to take advantage of changes in the browser design and set a black background. However, not everything is so simple, since the function is still in test mode. To achieve the desired result, you will have to work a little. So, if you have already downloaded the latest version of Google Chrome on your smartphone, then launch the browser from your phone and follow these steps:
- In the search bar, paste the following query chrome://flags#enable-android-night-mode.
- Next, in the highlighted item “Android Chrome UI dark mode”, you need to click on “Enable”.
- Now you need to restart the browser, it’s good if together with the device.
- When you restart the program, go to Chrome and go to settings - three vertical dots.
- In the standard menu, the “Dark mode” item will be added.
- You just need to activate it - drag the slider to the right.
Sometimes you may need to restart your browser several times because changes may not take effect immediately. Therefore, do this until the “Dark mode” item is displayed in the settings, indicating dark mode. Due to the fact that the black background is still in test mode, it may not work correctly, for example, not all fields are painted black or the text is shifted. But soon with the release of a new version, all the comments will be eliminated.
How to make Google Chrome dark on Android
A black theme for Google Chrome on Android also exists, and it is built directly into the browser. This function is better polished than the full-scale version, so the technology is already present in the mobile web browser on a smartphone by default.
How to switch to dark theme in Google Chrome on Android:
- Open the Google browser.
- Click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner and go to “Settings”.
- Click on the “Themes” item.
- Select the “Dark” option.
Now the dark theme in Google Chrome on Android is active, we can close the settings menu and enjoy comfortable surfing at night.
Healthy! There is another option for dark mode in Google Chrome on Android - automatic switching when entering power saving mode. To use it, instead of the fourth step, set the “Default” item.
How to disable dark theme in Google Chrome
The method of turning off directly depends on how the black background was turned on:
- In Windows Through "Options". Go to the “Personalization” section - “Colors” and select the “Light” item.
- Using flags. To turn off the night background, we recommend following the link in Chrome chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark and selecting the setting value – “Disabled”.
- Through extensions. Click on the add-on in the upper right corner and switch it to inactive state. In the case of the plugin in question, you just need to click on the eye symbol. (See point above)
- In a mobile browser. To remove dark mode, in the “Settings” section on the “Themes” tab, set the “Light” or “Default” option.
The above contains all the necessary information in order to learn how to use night mode in Google Chrome comfortably. Various customization options will allow you to quickly switch between different themes in both the computer and mobile versions of the Google Chrome browser.
