Now you have Dark Mode, do you like it and will you keep using it?

By Oliver Haslam
published

iOS 13 Dark mode
iOS 13 Dark mode (Image credit: iMore)

During WWDC in June Apple announced that iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 would offer a Dark Mode for the first time. It was something users had been screaming for ever since macOS 10.14 Mojave received the same feature last year. And it was finally coming.

Fast forward a few months – a whole summer, even – and a pair of seriously troubled beta programs and we now have iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.1. The latter never saw a version 13 and both have been superseded a couple of times since their release, but who's counting? Not me. I lost track long ago.

Alongside the new updates we saw many of our favorite apps also get updates that added support for Dark Mode. Some of them did a better job than others. Some already offered theming of their own so nothing really changed. But being able to transform iOS and iPadOS into a full-on dark theme was absolutely new. And having multiple apps respect that choice was mind blowing. As an aside, it really is odd how easily our minds are blown, right?

At this point most people have had at least a couple of weeks to take iPhone and iPad's Dark Mode for a spin. Which leads me to my question:

Now that you've had chance to use Dark Mode properly, do you like it?

I ask this because I have a theory. My theory is that Dark Mode is one of those features that everyone clamors for until they get it. Once they do, they use it. And then they discard it when they realize that the thought of Dark Mode is way better than the execution.

Things for iPad

(Image credit: Cultured Code)

Whether the fault of that failure to execute falls at the feet of Apple – did developers get the right tools? – or developers – does Dark Mode really need to be black? – it doesn't matter. It might even be our fault for setting expectations so high in the first place. All I know is my anecdotal flicking through social media and shoulder surfing tells me nobody's really feeling Dark Mode anymore.

But I want to know what you, dear reader, have to say. We've a handy dandy poll for you to use and we have comments below for you to passionately – but respectfully! – put your opinion across. I'm genuinely interested to hear your thoughts. Do you like Dark Mode?

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

10 Comments
  • I use it, but I wish Apple was more universal with it. Mail is a joke in that everything within a mail piece is still light (Apple ask Microsoft how to do this correctly). Also News blinds you because every story is still in light mode surrounded by a black outline. Its great in messages but its not universally done very well in the rest of the OS.
  • True! They need to make the news articles dark as well. Knowing Apple they'll wait til iOS 14 for that haha
  • Email is a bit of an odd one. What Microsoft does is "intelligently" change every color in the email except images, but to some people that ruins the design of the email, plus some emails are full of images with white backgrounds so Microsoft's solution isn't 100% perfect although it is better than Apple's
  • Well the internet isn't in dark mode. And neither is Apple News. Or Facebook. But twitter is. lol. Dark mode is useless unless you're listening to music but of course, if you use Spotify for music and podcasts then you've been in dark mode for like 5 years now. It's half baked and pretty much useless to anyone who uses non apple apps and uses the internet on their iPhone and I don't know a single person who doesn't do the latter. Two thumbs way down.
  • "Well the internet isn't in dark mode" The Internet has support for dark mode, 9to5Mac supports it (view it in Safari) among with various other websites. "And neither is Apple News" Good point, this is a bad one on Apple's part. "Or Facebook" Facebook on iOS will get dark mode "soon", not sure how soon but they will be working on it. I'm not sure about the website version although that's up to the Facebook developers to support, but it's possible they could release a Mac app with Catalyst that uses dark mode. "Dark mode is useless unless you're listening to music" Don't really understand this, music can be listened to without looking at a screen, not sure how this links to music in any way apart from music apps, which the Apple Music app (and others) do have dark mode. It's not really half-baked, most apps have been updated to support it, Safari supports it so long as the website developer implements it, it's bad on Apple's part that Apple News doesn't support it but Apple will remedy that either in another iOS 13 update or iOS 14. I love dark mode, and I think Apple have done a superb job on both macOS and iOS, so it's two thumbs way up for me.
  • Yes. I've used it with Windows for years.
  • Dark Mode is hard on the eyes. I just don’t get why it’s such a big deal.
  • I find it easier on the eyes, plus it depends whether you're talking about white on full black or white on dark gray, but each to their own. What I do like is that the whole dark mode thing has also brought the option for light mode in apps that only had a dark mode before, so it's great for everyone
  • I love it. It's much easier on my eyes. I use to have it on my Windows phone.....and really missed it when I had to jump that ship. It would be nice if there were a choice of other colors for text etc. But this is a real good start.
  • I wish I could change the text color. The blue on black is usable but I wouldn't mind making the text a tad lighter.