The small screen community is all about dark modes these days.
It is no wonder. It saves us from those sore eyes we all get when we sleep too much. Read “use our smartphones in the darkest of hours” instead of “sleep” here.
Everyone wants it. That is why a number of attention-hungry (social media) apps are offering the dark mode in their apps after public demand.
Facebook, the gluttony of attention, has quietly implemented it too.
With a touch of market understanding and a dash of Easter eggs in the mix, they have offered it in a nice geeky way.
Here is how you can activate it in three easy steps.
How to Activate the Dark Mode?
Revealed a few weeks in advance of the actual launch date, we suspect that this is not the official worldwide release. It may or may not work on your mobile device, depending on where you live.
Having said that, here are the three steps you need to follow to activate it.
Steps
- Send someone the moon emoji in a chat message. The one without the eyes. This someone could be anyone, even yourself.
The moon emoji
- Once you do that, you will see moons rain down on your screen and an alert will pop up, prompting you about the dark mode. Touch the button to turn it on in the settings.
Welcome to dark mode on Facebook Messenger
- After you tap that alert, you will be taken to the settings screen where you can toggle the dark mode option on.
Dark mode option on Facebook Messenger
Even if you didn’t tap that button, don’t worry, you can still go to your profile page in the app and find that dark mode setting toggle button there. Just turn it on
Once you do that, your screen will be turned to the heavenly mix of dark colors which you so much desired.
Dark mode in action
Problems
If after you send the moon emoji, nothing happens, then try tapping the moon emoji in the message. This may initiate the process.
If it does not, then do what every IT support staff member tells you to solve 99.9% of your problems. Restart your device and try again.
Still nothing?
Then your area is probably not covered in this limited release. But don’t worry, the official release is near. Facebook has promised that last year.
Is It Merely Superficial Beauty?
The feature that once took shape as a revolt against Google’s Material Design Initiative, which painted everything quite painfully white, offered more than just aesthetics. It is easy on the eyes… literally. But there is more…
The dark mode uses darker shades, or true black #ffffff, as a primary color for design instead of the white encouraged by Google.
The AMOLED screen users of dark themes claimed something other than just lack of eye strain. They claimed to get more life out of their batteries while using darker colors.
Google soon (after four years) realized the error in their ways of looking at aesthetics. They disclosed that when they shared information about battery consumption last year. They revealed screen brightness and colors to be the biggest factors in battery consumption.
Now that the aesthetic has turned into something tangible, Apple is also offering dark modes across their respective platforms.
So no, the dark mode’s beauty is not just skin deep. It is practical and should be available on all platforms. Although, we are not sure when that will happen exactly, but let’s keep our fingers crossed.At the moment, Facebook Messenger’s secret dark mode is partially rolled out on both iOS and Android versions.
