Technical / WhatsApp announces dark mode for Android, iOS users worldwide

Technical: WhatsApp has finally rolled out the much awaited dark mode feature on its platform. The feature is available on both the company’s Android and iOS based apps.

“Dark mode for WhatsApp offers a fresh look on a familiar experience. It’s designed to reduce eye strain in low light environments. And we hope it helps prevent those awkward moments where your phone lights up the room,” WhatsApp wrote in a blog post announcing the feature officially.

The Facebook-owned messaging app also said that it “is rolling out in the coming days on the latest version of WhatsApp.” This means that the company has started rolling out this feature to its users across the globe and they will be able to access this feature on their smartphones in the coming days.

In case you missed out the details, here are five things users need to know about WhatsApp’s dark mode feature:

-- To enable dark mode on their smartphones, users need to download the latest version of WhatsApp on their smartphones. If you are using an iPhone, download version 2.20.30 on your smartphone to access this feature.

-- Users, who have smartphones running on Android 10 or iOS 13, can enable dark mode on their devices by enabling the feature in their phone’s settings. This means that the dark mode settings in case of the mentioned OSes are system dependent. If users have enabled dark theme on their smartphones, the feature will get activated in the app automatically as soon as they update their apps.

-- Users who have smartphones running on Android 9 will get in-app settings to enable dark mode feature in the app as Android 9 does not have native support for dark mode. Android 9 users can enable dark mode in their apps by following this path: WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Theme > Dark.

-- However, the feature is not available on older versions of Android OS. This means that users who have smartphones running on Android 8 or older will not be able to access this feature on their smartphones.

-- While the company has rolled out dark mode on its Android and iOS based app, WhatsApp Web, which is the app’s web-based interface, is yet to get this feature. However, with the feature being rolled out in the app, an update for WhatsApp Web should be available soon.