Google features a Darkish Theme setting in ChromeOS Model 104, which, when turned on modifications many interface parts from a lightweight to darkish. The shelf, launcher, browser tabs and omnibox all swap to a Darkish Theme. That’s a helpful change from late 2020, once you wanted to pick out a customized browser theme as a part of efforts to realize the same look.
To entry the Darkish Theme setting in ChromeOS, click on on the shelf the place the battery standing, time and Wi-Fi indicator show. Choose the Darkish Theme choice to toggle the setting between Off and On. Once you make the change, the theme of the shelf and settings adjusts instantly.
Nonetheless, even after you choose the Darkish Theme, not each web site — and never even each Google-owned web site — displays your choice. Google’s groups nonetheless have a major quantity of labor to do to make sure that each Google-owned web site respects your ChromeOS Darkish Theme choice. Within the meantime, right here’s a have a look at a number of choices accessible to realize a Darkish Theme on ChromeOS.
The very best websites auto-detect the system theme
As of August 2022, YouTube settings act precisely as you may hope. The positioning colour scheme matches the machine theme: Once you set ChromeOS to Darkish Theme, YouTube shows Darkish Theme, as proven in Determine A on the left. Choose Gentle Theme for ChromeOS and YouTube will show in Gentle Theme, too.
Entry these by deciding on your Google account | Look, then select from Use System Theme, Darkish Theme or Gentle Theme settings.
You could manually change the theme, nevertheless, should you want a distinct theme than ChromeOS. That’s useful, since many individuals could want a Gentle Theme for ChromeOS with a Darkish Theme for YouTube movies.
Some websites let you choose a theme
Google Search provides what is perhaps greatest known as a easy swap: Darkish Theme on; Darkish Theme off. That’s it. As of August 2022, your ChromeOS Darkish Theme setting is totally disconnected from the Google.com search theme. Need Google search to show with a Darkish Theme? You’ll must go to Google.com, choose Settings within the lower-right nook, as proven in Determine A on the precise, then modify the choice to Darkish Theme: On.
Determine A
Different websites, resembling Gmail, allow you to apply a site-specific theme. For instance, choose the sprocket | View all | Darkish | Save to use a Darkish Theme to Gmail on the internet. For extra particulars, see my earlier article titled The way to obtain (principally) darkish mode on a Chromebook: 4 suggestions.
The way to use a Chrome extension to make websites darkish
Nonetheless, many websites lack both an auto-applied darkish mode or a selectable Darkish Theme. For instance, Google Docs and TechRepublic each show solely with a Gentle Theme.
One potential approach to darken this form of web site is with a flag present in ChromeOS 104: Sort chrome://flags within the browser, then seek for Auto Darkish and find the Auto Darkish Mode For Net Contents setting. When you change the setting to allow, you’ll want to pick out the Restart button to use the change.
Once you do, each internet web page you open ought to show utilizing a Darkish Theme. Nonetheless, as of August 2022, this setting doesn’t modify darkish textual content on pages to be readable. For instance, conventional black textual content in a Google Doc stays darkish, as do some menus in Gmail. As a result of this setting obscures content material, most individuals will discover this feature to be unusable.
Third-party Chrome extensions, resembling Darkish Reader or Night time Eye, supply to ship darkish mode on each web site you go to. Each extensions try to remodel Gentle Theme pages into Darkish Theme ones. The default settings for every produce barely completely different colour schemes.
For instance, on a TechRepublic web page from an earlier article, Darkish Reader turned the navigation menu objects a shade of white (Determine B, prime proper), whereas Night time Eye turned the identical objects a shade of purple (Determine B, backside proper). The completely different extensions additionally flip the title and subtitle textual content barely completely different shades, too.
Each extensions enable for some customization, so should you don’t just like the default changes, you could make modifications. Darkish Reader is a free, open supply extension, whereas Night time Eye provides each a limited-feature free version, Night time Eye Lite, and full-featured paid version, Night time Eye Professional.
Determine B
Not one of the above choices — the ChromeOS Darkish Theme setting or third-party extensions — will darken sure browser-protected pages, such because the Chrome Net Retailer. Google’s groups might want to coordinate internally to permit the ChromeOS Darkish Theme setting to regulate these presently-restricted pages.
What’s your desire and expertise?
When you use ChromeOS, do you sometimes depart the Darkish Theme on or off? Do you like to use darkish settings or themes on all websites that supply them? Or do you depend on a third-party extension to realize a constant Darkish Theme expertise within the browser? Message or point out me on Twitter (@awolber) to let me know what you concentrate on the Darkish Theme in ChromeOS.
