What you need to know
- Google has announced the dark theme for Gmail is officially rolling out starting September 24.
- It will be available on both Android and iOS.
- The rollout is being done on the server-side and could take up to 15 days to show up.
Google has been hard at work updating its core apps with dark themes to support Android 10's built-in dark mode. However, one of the most used and most popular apps has been noticeably absent. That was until today, when Google announced the dark theme for Gmail is officially rolling out.
In the past, we saw hints that the theme was in the works. It's surprising it took Google so long to release it for Gmail, but at least it is finally here. In the blog post, Google details that the rollout is beginning today for Android and iOS, but that it can take "potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility." It's a server-side switch, so if you haven't gotten it already, updating your app won't help and you're just going to have to wait it out.
Once the dark theme becomes available, there are a couple of ways to enable it. On Android 10, it will respect your system-wide theme setting, or you can enable it by heading into Settings, Theme, and select Dark. Similarly, on iOS it will respect the system-wide theme in iOS 13, and in iOS 11 or 12, you can enable it via the settings.
Like the other dark themes we've seen from Google, the Gmail theme makes use of a dark gray color with white text. The colors are also more subdued to prevent any harsh contrasts and make it easier on the eyes.
