Android 11

Dark mode scheduling might be available in upcoming Android 11 build

Damien Wilde | Dec 16 2019 - 5:06 am PT

One of the best new additions in Android 10 is undoubtedly the system-wide dark mode. With more apps now supporting the system, it’s still a shame that dark mode scheduling isn’t yet available officially in Android.

That looks set to change in a future Android 11 build, as a recent comment on the Google Issue Tracker has hinted at the potential comeback of the feature that was available in early Android 10 beta builds (via XDA-developers).

Considering that we can schedule the eye-saving Night Light each day, you’d kind of expect the ability to set when you’re apps are dipping into a dark theme. Google suggested that the initial removal was due to potential user experience issues with applications suddenly restarting while you’re using them.

There is also the problem with devices requiring location permissions to track local sunrise and sunset times. This is notoriously buggy according to a Reddit AMA with Android Developer Relations team member Chris Banes.

We’re not sure when the Android 11 beta or preview is set to release but we imagine that it would be opened at a similar time to the Android Q beta — which was in March 2019. We could see dark mode scheduling at some point in the first few betas with a full release alongside Android 11 in late 2020.

There is a way to enabled dark mode scheduling already thanks to a workaround using the Automatic Dark Theme for Android 10. However, that does require you to run some commands via ADB. While that is fantastic for those that want set dark mode to automatically toggle, it likely won’t match the intuitive nature of a stock implementation.