Android 16 makes dark mode better for more apps

Many popular Android apps now have a dark theme, but some like Fitbit, PayPal, Walmart, and Amazon still don’t. People often prefer dark themes because they’re easier on the eyes, especially in low light. Luckily, Google is developing a new feature for Android 16 that will turn these apps dark.

Last year, I discovered a hidden “make all apps dark” feature which was supposed to be in Android 15. This feature made every app turn dark, even if they didn’t have their own dark mode. It was more effective than the existing “override force-dark” option in developer settings, as it could handle more apps without letting them opt out of going dark. This new feature seemed smarter, changing colors in a more thoughtful way rather than just flipping them.

I’m bringing this up again because Google hasn’t given up on this idea. They’ve updated it in Android 16 Beta 1. The feature’s name changed from “make all apps dark” to “make more apps dark,” and it’s now found under Settings > Display & touch > Dark theme instead of the old place in Accessibility. While it’s still not easy to find, I managed to make it appear in the settings.

The description of the feature has been updated too. It used to warn that some apps might look weird with inverted colors, but now it simply says it will “automatically convert light-themed apps to dark theme.”

Even though the core function hasn’t changed since last year, these updates show that Google is still actively working on it. We don’t know when it will be fully released, but I’m hopeful we’ll see it in the next big update for Android 16. This could make using our phones at night much more comfortable.

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