The Complete Guide To Understanding And Using Dark Mode On Facebook

Dark mode has swept across the tech industry over the last 5 years, with apps, operating systems and websites embracing darker interfaces optimized for low light usage, visual ergonomics and battery efficiency. Facebook joined the trend in 2020 by rolling out dark mode support in its mobile apps and on desktop.

This definitive guide will explore what exactly dark mode is, why Facebook decided to implement it, how it works across Facebook‘s platforms, its business and user benefits, recent innovations, and the future possibilities it unlocks.

What Is Dark Mode and How Does It Work?

Dark mode is a display setting where bright backgrounds like white are replaced with darker colors like black, dark gray and shades of blue. Instead of black text on a white background, dark mode inverts the palette to white text on a dark background.

Diagram showing the inversion of interface element colors between light and dark mode (Credit: Google)

This inversion requires changing code and design assets throughout the interface. Fortunately, most modern UI frameworks like Facebook‘s React and development platforms provide native support for dynamic theming to make implementing dark mode easier.

For example, here is sample code for conditionally rendering a React component based on whether dark mode is enabled in the OS settings:

// Import useColorScheme hook
import { useColorScheme } from ‘react-native‘; 

// Component to conditionally render in light or dark mode
function MyComponent() {

  // Get OS preference for light or dark 
  const colorScheme = useColorScheme();

  // Apply color palette matching scheme 
  const themeColors = colorScheme === ‘dark‘ ? darkTheme : lightTheme;

  return (
    <View style={{backgroundColor: themeColors.background}}>
      <Text style={{color: themeColors.text}}>
        This text will switch color based on dark/light mode!  
      </Text>
    </View>
  );
}

This allows developers to rely on system-level preferences instead of rebuilding toggle logic while still adapting their UI to match the user‘s chosen mode.

The engineering effort required depends on the degree of inversion, theming and contrast adjustments implemented. As one of the world‘s largest and most highly trafficked sites, Facebook had to ensure seamless support across platforms.

Why Did Facebook Build Dark Mode?

Facebook cites several key motivations behind adding an official dark mode option [1]:

Lower Brightness for Comfortable Evening Use

The bright white backgrounds and blue app bars of standard Facebook can strain eyes and disrupt circadian rhythms at night. Dark mode reduces unnecessary brightness.

Increased Reading Comfort

While subjective, many users find white text on dark backdrops easier to parse large blocks of text with less eye fatigue.

Energy Savings

OLED smartphone screens utilize less power to display black pixels compared to illuminating white. Dark interfaces can significantly extend battery life.

Product leader Alex Shi conferred with engineering teams at Facebook to chart the technical roadmap for rolling dark mode out. However, Shi notes the feature was a highly requested user desire for years [2].

Public figures like distinguished software engineer Steve Troughton-Smith also publicly called for Facebook to add dark mode support:

Facebook really needs a proper Dark Mode
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) May 29, 2019

Increasingly vocal user demand likely factored into prioritizing building dark mode. As an ad-supported business, staying aligned with what users ask for helps maintain engagement.

How Facebook‘s Dark Mode Works Across Platforms

After beginning development in 2019, Facebook‘s dark mode first became available in March 2020 for iOS devices. Android and the desktop site followed over the subsequent months [3].

Rather than simply inverting colors, designers created optimized dark themes for each platform:

iOS

Uses a pure black background with gray secondary surfaces and high contrast drawers. The tab bar uses a medium gray.

Android

Subtler dark blue hues are favored over black backgrounds. The navigation bar leverages a lighter shade of blue for greater depth between surfaces.

Desktop Web

Almost black grays provide the backdrop while ui features like hover and focus states get blue highlighting. The left sidebar employs dark blue for familiarity.

These cross-platform variations make dark mode feel native to each Facebook environment. But implementation details differ significantly under the hood…

Dark Mode on iOS & Android Apps

Mobile apps have the most robust support due to native APIs provided at the OS level on both iOS and Android.

The React Native framework used by Facebook detects user color scheme preferences set at the system level and handles applying visual treatments like:

Swapping background colors
Inverting icons
Changing text/element colors

This means dark mode can even automatically toggle on/off based on sunlight or time of day thanks to smart activation settings.

The result is a tightly integrated mobile dark mode customized for iPhone and Android users respectively.

Dark Mode on Desktop Web

In the browser, Facebook‘s dark mode relies on custom CSS variables and rules applied when enabled by the user. For example:

/* Light mode styles */
body {
  --bg-color: #fff; 
  --text-color: #1c1e21;
}

/* Dark mode overrides */  
.dark-mode body {
  --bg-color: #18191a;
  --text-color: #fff;   
}

Browser support for setting color schemes is still emerging, so the manual toggle manages themes by adding the .dark-mode class.

Cross-browser testing and tweaks were required during development to avoid regressions. Features like dark mode solidify why Facebook open sourced its Jest Snap Shot testing framework [4].

Measuring the Business Impact of Dark Mode

Similar to therationale behind implementing dark mode, its success is measured by a range of factors reflecting user needs and business metrics [5]:

1. Adoption & Usage

Over 50% of iOS Facebook users activate dark mode, indicating strong demand. Desktop and Android see lower but climbing activation rates as the rollout continues.

2. Retention & Engagement

While correlation doesn‘t necessarily mean causation, Facebook retains 1-2% more DAUs (daily active users) in markets where dark mode has been launched.

3. Feature Requests & Sentiment

Negative sentiment and requests for dark mode have dropped significantly across user feedback channels since its introduction.

4. Performance & Accessibility

Key performance benchmarks around time-to-interactive for News Feed load are equal between modes, proving dark mode doesn‘t negatively impact site speed. Automated and manual accessibility testing show contrast improvements, especially for low vision users.

The resounding success across both qualitative and quantitative measures reaffirms why Facebook committed engineering resources to building dark mode support.

Recent Innovations in Dark Mode

The launch of dark mode is just the start of longer term development. Recent innovations hint at the future direction:

Automatic Switching by Battery Level

Android‘s Facebook app can now automatically enable dark mode when phone batteries drop to a low charge state. Preserving every bit of juice takes priority.

Enhanced Contrast Options

Extra colors and contrast configurations within Facebook‘s dark mode customization settings aim to tailor things for those with visual impairments.

Subtler Blue Light Reduction

A newer iteration of desktop dark mode shifts backgrounds to dark blue versus full black for better readability in nighttime environs while preserving some blue light reduction versus full dark mode.

Subtle dark blue background introduced as alternative to black backgrounds for improved night viewing

Consistency Across All Apps

WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Oculus have adopted dark schemes to provide a consistent Facebook-wide experience.

Match system preferences allowing smarter auto-activation and modifying background/text colors based on ambient light conditions could be potential future updates.

The Evolution of Dark Interfaces

Dark scheme centered interfaces trace back long before iOS 13 and Android 10 codified system-wide support:

2008 – Black backgrounds used on Nokia Symbian S60 phones to conserve OLED battery life

2009 – Jailbroken iOS apps like Mail darken to be readable before bed

2011 – Google experiments with dark themes to reduce Android eye strain

2013 – Darkreader browser extension applies dark mode to ease reading

2015 – Apple adds "Smart Invert" to iOS to invert screen colors

2018 – YouTube rolls out Dark Theme to make nighttime viewing easier

2019 – macOS Catalina adds native dark mode support carried over to Big Sur

2020 – The majority of apps offer dark themes amid the rise of dark modes across mobile, desktop and web

The accumulation of scientific research confirming visual ergonomic benefits combined with sufficient baseline adoptions of underlying platform capabilities finally hit critical mass in 2020.

This spawned a Cambrian explosion of natively supported dark modes across stacked technology strata – YouTube Music, Twitter, VS Code, Discord, Pinterest, Reddit, Slack, iOS, Android etc.

Facebook rode this evolutionary wave once framework and customer readiness aligned. Avoiding change for change‘s sake alone waits long enough to understand true pro/cons but not hesitate inproviding user benefits.

Key Implications and Questions About the Future

Now that dark mode has settled into the Facebook landscape, important questions and unknown opportunities emerge around where things go from here:

Will data about usage patterns and preferences in dark vs light modes impact future redesigns? What new insights can be derived?
How will the rise of OLED screens in laptops and tablets influence the demand and effectiveness of dark modes on larger devices? How can usability be optimized?
As VR screen technology matures, will notions of light/dark modes need rethinking to maximize user comfort and travel metaphor integrity when reality is completely simulated?
With dark mode established as an accessiblity enhancement, what other areas like contrast, scaling and translation can augment inclusion?
Would toggling dark mode based on personal solar circadian rhythms or ambient light readings provide greater customization?

Undoubtedly, ensuring dark mode delivered tangible gains without regression formed the bulk of efforts during launch. The next phase entails building capabilities atop the strong foundation now in place.

Rarely do popular platform paradigm shifts like dark mode signal mere fads. Rather, their ascent indicates untapped demands and openings to craft more refined user experiences going forward in Facebook‘s perpetually evolving product environment.