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Android forces ‘Night Mode’ when Battery Saver is enabled on Pixel devices following latest update

There’s been a lot of talk in the Android community as of late when it comes to dark mode. Slowly but surely, Google has been making adjustments to its suite of apps and the OS itself to add the much-requested feature. Now, Google is making Android Night Mode turn on by force when users enable Battery Saver.

First spotted by Android Police, November’s security update for Pixel devices changes how Battery Saver affects the OS in a key way. When users turn on Battery Saver mode, the OS automatically turns on the Night Mode which is currently buried in the developer options. Android Night Mode doesn’t do much yet, but it does govern the device theme as well as limited apps including Google Contacts.

Interestingly, this setting is not optional. Even if Night Mode is set to “always off,” flipping Battery Saver mode on following the November update applies the dark theme, switching that setting to “always on.” While I doubt many users will be irritated at this change, it is a bit interesting that Google would force the theme as more apps adopt the Android Night Mode setting.

Of course, Google is making this change as well as other dark themes in an effort to help users save battery life. As detailed last week, Google has noted that darker themes actually save battery life. With this change, battery saver mode gets just ever so slightly more effective.

More on Google Dark Mode:

Google encouraging dark themes in Android apps to conserve battery life

Google Contacts 3.2 adds dark theme, respects system Night mode in Android Pie

Here’s every Google app with a dark mode, and how to enable it [Gallery]

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