Android has flirted and taunted and teased us with the return of a dark theme for the last several years, and this year, after hoping against hope that this would finally be the year, IT IS! Dark Theme is coming to Android Q and it will allow you to flip the switch not just on the Settings app and Quick Settings, but on every app that is updated to support Dark Theme.
Now, as we all know, dark themes can mean different things to different app developers and different ecosystems, but the API Google is using for Dark Theme should help achieve a consistent and stable look across apps and devices — and a dark theme that is AMOLED black, not some charcoal grey. Google is also promising all of their own apps with work with Dark Theme, though they might not all work Day One.
Dark Theme will allow you to switch from the normal light theme to a more battery-efficient AMOLED black theme with a single toggle in Settings — or the Quick Settings tiles — and it can also be automatically implemented when a phone running Q kicks over to Battery saving mode, because as more and more phones use AMOLED screens, Dark Theme will be yet another way to eke out a little more life out of your dying phone.
This has been a long time coming, but the fight's not over, as we need app developers to actually implement the API for Dark Theme, but for now, I'm going to go pour me a drink and have a little cry, because the darkness that Google ripped away from me at Google I/O in 2013 is finally coming back.
