X kills off app-level dark mode in its mobile apps

For a variety of reasons, dark mode has become incredibly popular in apps, operating systems and web sites – including X. Whether for reasons of aesthetics, a belief that power consumption is reduced, or to be more gentle on the eyes, darker tones are very much de rigueur.

This makes it all the more strange that users of X started to notice that the mobile app is now lacking the option to enable dark mode. The company has an explanation about what is going on.

The sudden, unannounced disappearance of the dark mode option resulted in disgruntled X users posting their messages of confusion and disapproval to the social platform.

One user warned: “The newest version of the X App no longer has the option to switch to Dark Mode

If you update or delete the app and reinstall you will be stuck on Light Mode. Be warned”

This resulted in a rather curt response from Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, who said: “Wrong. Turn on Dark Mode on your device and your X app will go into Dark Mode.

It is now controlled at the Operating System level, not the app-level (which made no sense and created issues throughout the app).”

So dark mode is not gone, it is just enabled in a different way. With little in the way of detail, it is hard to say quite what issues app-level dark mode was causing, but there will be mixed feelings about what X has done.

While those who have experienced issues will be pleased that steps have been taken to address them, not everyone will be happy. Now, in order to have X use dark mode, system-level dark mode must be activated – and this is clearly not going to be something that everyone wants.

How do you feel about the change? Does this new approach work for you, or are you unhappy with what X has done?

Image credit: Olena Churilova / Dreamstime.com