Google Chrome for Windows 10 to Get Dark Mode Soon, Engineer Reveals

Google Chrome is getting a dark mode UI for Microsoft's Windows 10, as per the latest developments. The news makes its way to headlines weeks after Google was spotted preparing a Chrome browser dark theme for Apple's macOS Mojave. Now, a senior Chrome engineer has revealed Windows 10 will be getting a dark mode soon. With native dark mode support, Google Chrome will bring a comfortable Web browsing experience on Windows machines especially in low lighting conditions. This is notably not the first time when Google has favoured a dark mode on its development. The company already added a dark mode to its various offerings, including Android and YouTube. Microsoft's Windows 10 is also supporting an option to enable a system-wide dark mode for a long time.

Senior Chrome Engineer and a member of the Chromium team at Google Peter Kasting in a Reddit thread revealed the ongoing development around native dark mode support for desktops. "For desktop, native dark mode support is in progress; in the meantime, we generally suggest people [to] use a dark theme," he said.

Google Chrome Dark Mode for macOS
Photo Credit: Cult of Mac

As noted by TechDows.com, Kasting had submitted a bug report in May last year referring to the absence of a dark mode on Google Chrome. "Windows 10 allows users to set their apps to 'light' or 'dark' mode," he said. "Chrome should respect this. The most obvious hack is to use the default incognito colour scheme in normal mode (as well as incognito) if the system is in dark mode. Long term, we should perhaps have a better answer. This has been a popular external request for some time," he had written in the bug report.

That earlier move has apparently pushed the team to start building progress towards native dark mode support on Google Chrome for desktops.

Kasting's latest comment on Reddit confirms the Chrome team is bringing a dark mode for desktops. However, he didn't provide any details around a similar experience in progress for mobile devices. "The mobile platforms are different teams, and I don't have visibility there," he stated.

Having said that, Google recently submitted a code change to bring dark mode support to Chrome 73 for macOS in the coming months. The code change essentially detects the default Dark Mode on macOS Mojave to transform the browser with a dark treatment. This could be similar to how Mozilla's Firefox offered a dark theme for macOS Mojave users.

It is worth mentioning here that similar to the Dark Mode on macOS Mojave that debuted last year, Windows 10 is supporting an intrinsic way to turn apps and interface into dark since the Anniversary Update arrived back in August 2016. However, Google hasn't shown any its interest in bringing a dark mode for Windows users. Some third-party dark themes are available via the Chrome Web Store to reduce the brightness impact.