Enough with Dark Mode, it isn't possible!

[venividivigor]

im sick of seeing all these posts about dark mode, and I just don't understand how people think dark mode is even possible on iOS.

First of all, the new clock app is dark to match the Apple Watch App's counterparts, tvOS dark theme only darkens the menu, and OS X only darks the menu bar and dock, so what do you even expect from iOS??

Each apps, like Facebook, YouTube, Netflix has their own design for apps, they're not going to redesign a whole new interface for a dark mode. No API can simply just blacken everything.

Dark mode in safari? That's ridiculous when the only darken part is the top bar and the whole page is all white. (Because Most websites are white.)

simply put, iOS can't have a dark mode

 

[ipottersmith]

I'll just leave this here:

 

[Mlrollin91]

I'll just leave this here:

Yeah no thanks. Using that in direct sunlight would be extremely difficult and it looks horrible on Facebook and Safari when the background is white and the navigation bars are black. Its not practical at all.

 

[C DM]

Just because some extra work would need to be done, or because not all apps would be using it (at first at least), doesn't mean it can't happen. Seems like it's doable in macOS and tvOS and watchOS, so it doesn't seem like it's something that just plain can't be done or isn't possible.

 

[sawah]

If a jailbreak app can do it, apple certainly can do it.

 

[ipottersmith]

Yeah no thanks. Using that in direct sunlight would be extremely difficult and it looks horrible on Facebook and Safari when the background is white and the navigation bars are black. Its not practical at all.

Oh, agreed during the day. When I had Eclipse on iOS 8 I used a control center toggle to enable/ disable it and it was a GREAT night mode.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Just because some extra work would need to be done, or because not all apps would be using it (at first at least), doesn't mean it can't happen. Seems like it's doable in macOS and tvOS and watchOS, so it doesn't seem like it's something that just plain can't be done or isn't possible.

The only thing that macOS dark mode darkens is the menu bar and dock. Apps are not effected. The only thing tvOS dark mode darkens is the home screen. WatchOS doesn't count because it doesn't have a 'light' mode. What would dark mode do for iOS? Darken settings? There is too much going on in iOS to have dark mode. What would be dark, what wouldn't. Safari in the tweak above looks horrendous.

Oh, agreed during the day. When I had Eclipse on iOS 8 I used a control center toggle to enable/ disable it and it was a GREAT night mode.

But is that necessary anymore with NightShift? Since I have been using NightShift I have not felt "blinded" by my display. Additionally, I have the zoom tweak set up to dim the screen in dark rooms.

 

[C DM]

The only thing that macOS dark mode darkens is the menu bar and dock. Apps are not effected. The only thing tvOS dark mode darkens is the home screen. WatchOS doesn't count because it doesn't have a 'light' mode. What would dark mode do for iOS? Darken settings? There is too much going on in iOS to have dark mode. What would be dark, what wouldn't. Safari in the tweak above looks horrendous.

It can darken native iOS elements, and then apps can also be allowed to use that in their design and various ones would (as various ones already offer a dark mode anyway). There is certainly a spectrum as to how it can all work and to what extent, but there can certainly be some type of a dark mode.

 

[ipottersmith]

But is that necessary anymore with NightShift? Since I have been using NightShift I have not felt "blinded" by my display. Additionally, I have the zoom tweak set up to dim the screen in dark rooms.

For me, absolutely. Even with brightness all the way down and night shift on I'll often invert the colors to alleviate my eyes.

 

[Mlrollin91]

For me, absolutely. Even with brightness all the way down and night shift on I'll often invert the colors to alleviate my eyes.

Have you used the zoom tweak to dim the display even more?
http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/18/how-to-reduce-iphone-screen-brightness-without-jailbreak/

 

[C DM]

Have you used the zoom tweak to dim the display even more?
http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/18/how-to-reduce-iphone-screen-brightness-without-jailbreak/

Making things dimmer and less blue is not the same as having them dark. All these things are certainly helpful, but it's not really that one or a combination of some make it so that the other ones aren't useful (of course not everything is useful to everyone, as is the case with Night Shift or making things dimmer or having things dark).

 

[KALLT]

What would dark mode do for iOS? Darken settings? There is too much going on in iOS to have dark mode. What would be dark, what wouldn't. Safari in the tweak above looks horrendous.

A dark mode would probably be implemented directly into Cocoa Touch, specifically the UIKit framework. The components (bars, table views, buttons, sliders, labels and such) could simply get an alternative style that is presented when the dark mode is enabled. It is mostly just a recolouring, except for more complex custom images. Apple could also add specific APIs so that developers can customise this alternative appearance. They could make this opt-in for developers, so that they specifically have to enable it for their apps. The implementation would actually be trivial.

But is that necessary anymore with NightShift? Since I have been using NightShift I have not felt "blinded" by my display. Additionally, I have the zoom tweak set up to dim the screen in dark rooms.

The idea of a dark mode is particularly appealing, because of rumours on OLED displays for future iPhones. OLED benefit from dark colours, because this uses less energy. Apple already does this for the Apple Watch. OLED is also becoming, if it isn’t already, a superior display technology.

 

[ipottersmith]

Making things dimmer and less blue is not the same as having them dark. All these things are certainly helpful, but it's not really that one or a combination of some make it so that the other ones aren't useful (of course not everything is useful to everyone, as is the case with Night Shift or making things dimmer or having things dark).

^Yup

 

[Mlrollin91]

A dark mode would probably be implemented directly into Cocoa Touch, specifically the UIKit framework. The components (bars, table views, buttons, sliders, labels and such) could simply get an alternative style that is presented when the dark mode is enabled. It is mostly just a recolouring, except for more complex custom images. Apple could also add specific APIs so that developers can customise this alternative appearance. They could make this opt-in for developers, so that they specifically have to enable it for their apps. The implementation would actually be trivial.



The idea of a dark mode is particularly appealing, because of rumours on OLED displays for future iPhones. OLED benefit from dark colours, because this uses less energy. Apple already does this for the Apple Watch. OLED is also becoming, if it isn’t already, a superior display technology.

For OLED I understand. I've been saying for a few months on here that we won't see a dark mode until OLED iPhone at the earliest because of energy savings. But thinking about using dark mode outside in direct sunlight seems unusable. Especially because OLEDs are difficult to use in sunlight to begin with.

 

[cynics]

But is that necessary anymore with NightShift? Since I have been using NightShift I have not felt "blinded" by my display. Additionally, I have the zoom tweak set up to dim the screen in dark rooms.

Night shift is to reduce blue light that can throw off your circadian rhythm. That in turn helps you sleep better. More for your brain than eyes. It's not intended to reduce eye strain from the contrast and intensity in a dark environment.

Edit. Sorry I see cd m mentioned that.

 

[venividivigor]

It can darken native iOS elements, and then apps can also be allowed to use that in their design and various ones would (as various ones already offer a dark mode anyway). There is certainly a spectrum as to how it can all work and to what extent, but there can certainly be some type of a dark mode.

Like I said in the first post, tvOS and OS X have a dark mode but all they do is darken the menu, menu bar and dock; not any apps are darkened whatsoever. So there are no elements in iOS that would turn dark.

All apps are designed the way the developers want it, turning all the white space into black would look horrendous with some colors, and recoloring elements/buttons would just confuse people. They would also need to have dark mode in mind when designing their app. Even if a jailbreak could do it, it's always up to the developers to implement it. Which I doubt it's worth the effort to redesign their apps, so adoption would be slow- which means your app switcher would look like mayhem.

I also like to say, that I find "dark mode" worthless. If you leave an app that has dark mode, you will still be shunned with your bright wallpaper in the app switcher or your home screen. Not only that, but the icons too, let alone apps that don't have dark mode, or have images displayed on screen (i.e. Instagram, Facebook pics, photos app, Imgur pics, and most of them are edge to edge pics, so they take up most of your screen real estate.)

A dark mode would probably be implemented directly into Cocoa Touch, specifically the UIKit framework. The components (bars, table views, buttons, sliders, labels and such) could simply get an alternative style that is presented when the dark mode is enabled. It is mostly just a recolouring, except for more complex custom images. Apple could also add specific APIs so that developers can customise this alternative appearance. They could make this opt-in for developers, so that they specifically have to enable it for their apps. The implementation would actually be trivial.



The idea of a dark mode is particularly appealing, because of rumours on OLED displays for future iPhones. OLED benefit from dark colours, because this uses less energy. Apple already does this for the Apple Watch. OLED is also becoming, if it isn’t already, a superior display technology.

 

[C DM]

For OLED I understand. I've been saying for a few months on here that we won't see a dark mode until OLED iPhone at the earliest because of energy savings. But thinking about using dark mode outside in direct sunlight seems unusable. Especially because OLEDs are difficult to use in sunlight to begin with.

Well, OLED reasoning is more about the additional benefits of it all, but doesn't really affect the how it can be done and why it would be useful outside of battery savings. As for sunlight usage, it seems that with good contrast/brightness/backlighting a dark mode/background can work just as well as a light one (and a light one can look washed out and bad in sunlight just as much too if everything is really light and contrast/brightness/backlighting isn't good).

 

[ardchoille50]

If a full dark mode is introduced I hope it's implemented as a user-configurable option so I can turn it off. I can't stand dark UI's and it's the main reason I dumped Android around the gingerbread/honeycomb release.

 

[bodonnell202]

im sick of seeing all these posts about dark mode, and I just don't understand how people think dark mode is even possible on iOS.

First of all, the new clock app is dark to match the Apple Watch App's counterparts, tvOS dark theme only darkens the menu, and OS X only darks the menu bar and dock, so what do you even expect from iOS??

Each apps, like Facebook, YouTube, Netflix has their own design for apps, they're not going to redesign a whole new interface for a dark mode. No API can simply just blacken everything.

Dark mode in safari? That's ridiculous when the only darken part is the top bar and the whole page is all white. (Because Most websites are white.)

simply put, iOS can't have a dark mode

I think Dark Mode looks awesome, especially on the Space Grey iPhone. Not everyone wants white everything with liberal use of overly bright colours. If you do, good for you, but not everyone is you. It's called choice and it's the one thing that Android has over Apple.

 

[ajiuo]

No ****... Dark mode would just be the system, Apple apps, and an API... It would be app makers choice to implement just like 3D Touch... It's totally doable... Apple won't do it just to give you a theme though... They will do it when oled displays hit in 2017... Cuz it will save power.

 

[DomC]

I'd be happy just to have the keyboard be dark all the time. THAT is doable.

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/06/15/dark-mode-resources-discovered-in-ios-10/

Never say never, you never know.

 

[mous94410]

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/06/15/dark-mode-resources-discovered-in-ios-10/

Never say never, you never know.

Omg

 

[ipottersmith]

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/06/15/dark-mode-resources-discovered-in-ios-10/

Never say never, you never know.

Yay!! Fingers crossed.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I personally would never use that. Way too dark. All I want is a dark stock keyboard. I'm hoping iOS 10 will finally allow third party keyboards dictation access. As long as its a toggle option, then by all means bring on dark mode. I do like dark mode on macOS. But as mentioned before, its only menu bar and dock.