The widespread usage of smartphones and the continuous engagement of people with the mobile is making mobile app development companies to innovate more and find better solutions to making a soothing user experience. One such innovation is of introducing Dark Mode in the apps. Global magnum apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and others have already introduced the dark mode, while others are in the pace. People now find difficult to give up their mobile phones and use even in the dark ambiance. The light which emits in dark ambiance is too high and almost piercing for a user’s eyes. There have been reports that indicate that prolonged use of such apps results in dry and itchy eyes for users. Hence, the dark mode in the apps is a sign of relief from the harshness of screen light and makes it relaxing for the user’s eyes to easily work on apps in the dark. Another advantage of dark mode in the mobile is it extends the battery life of the mobile phone.
Here are some of the popular platforms, or devices which are offering the dark mode:
- Operating Systems: Windows 10, Mac OS Mojave, Android, iOS 13
- Browsers: Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox
- Chatting Platforms: Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Skype, Slack, Viber
- Social Media Platforms: Twitter, Facebook
- Other Productivity Tools: Trello, Todoist, Notion
What are the benefits of the dark mode?
1. Your eyes health & well-being:
There are many situations when everyone in the room beside you want to sleep and turn lights off, while you have to use your mobile phone either for personal or professional work. After the lights turned down, no matter how much you lower down the brightness of your screen, after a few minutes it seems harsh for your eyes. You should know that the effect isn’t limited to the dry and painful eyes we get from looking at bright blue screens all day long. Exposure to bright light also suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone essential for a sound sleep. This is the primary reason why many car brands are turning the dashboards lights into blue to keep the driver awake and alert.
According to a study, on average, a mobile user spends more than 11 hours per day on the device. Obviously, such long engagement with a digital screen can result in insomnia, headaches, or neck pain.
2. Saves Battery Life:
Apps running in the dark mode can prolong the battery life of the mobile phone. Google has confirmed that using dark mode on the OLED screens results in more battery life. For instance, with 50% brightness, the interface in the Dark Mode of YouTube app will save nearly 15% of screen energy in comparison to a simple white background. At 100% screen brightness, the dark interface is saving a whopping 60% of screen energy.
3. Dark Mode is captivating:
We need to be honest, the dark mode on an app is really attractive to us. While many apps are still going for the white Blanche look, with the dark mode you get somewhat a mysterious and new feel. It also provides great opportunities for presenting graphic content such as graphs, dashboards, pictures, and photos.
How to create a dark mode for mobile applications:
Creating a dark mode during mobile application development is not a cakewalk. It is not just a simple change of inverting shades or reusing colors. If you are required to read a white text on a black background, then your eyes will open the iris more to receive more light. Along with this, the lens deformation creates a fuzzier focus at the eye called Halation. That’s why an unhealthy dark mode can be pretty harsh on a user’s visual health due to high contrast and strain that originated from it.
You need to understand that dark mode is not just putting the black colour on white composition. Then how to design a dark mode, here are the tips:
- Use grey in dark: Instead of opting for a solid black colour you can choose grey for showing space and elevation with a wide depth range in the dark theme.
- Limitation in colours: Google suggests using a limiting number of colour accents in the user interfaces of the dark theme.
- Energy consumption: The mobile app developers should focus on conserving the battery while designing the dark mode by reducing the use of light pixels.
- Enhance Accessibility: Also, app developers need to accommodate the regular dark theme users such as users with low vision, by meeting accessibility colour contrast standards.
- Contrast: The background in the dark UI should be dark enough to easily show white text, the contrast also needs to maintain. The contrast should be minimum of 15:8:1 between the background and text. This is how the body text passes the WCAG’s AA standard of 4.5:5:1 when added to surfaces at the highest elevation on the app.
- Colours: In dark mode, the mobile app experts must avoid colours which induce strain on eyes. Rather, use desaturated colours which enhance the legibility.
At Amplework, the top-notch mobile app development company in India, we are having expert mobile app developers who can develop amazing mobile apps with dark modes.
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