Twitter’s new dark mode is actually black and it’s glorious

One of the best design trends of the last year or so is the rise of dark themes for popular apps. If you spend a lot of time staring at screens, dark modes are both easier on the eyes and your battery life. 

Now, Twitter is making its dark mode even better, with a new darker theme that’s actually black (as opposed to the previous navy blue-tinged color scheme) and the ability to enable dark mode automatically. 

With the changes (which are out on iOS now), Twitter is adding a blacker variation of dark mod  called “Lights Out.” Unlike the app’s previous dark theme, Lights Out is actually black – “a pure black color palette that emits no light since the pixels are turned off,” according to Twitter. Here’s what it looks like compared to the old night mode (which is still available and now labeled as “Dim” in the app.) 

For those who aren’t already loyal adherents to dark mode, this may seem like a lot of hype for what’s essentially different shades of black, but I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. We all spend way too much time staring at our phones, an addiction that’s likely wreaking havoc on both our eyes and our brains. 

With dark themes, we can at least do something about the former (you’ll need to go another route for help with the latter). Until Apple releases a system-wide dark mode (sorry, inverting colors in accessibility settings doesn’t count) switching on dark mode app-by-app is the best option.

If you’re still not ready for your Twitter app to go full vampire, you can use the new automatic mode, which will allow either dark color scheme to kick in daily during the evening, much like Apple’s Night Shift feature.

Android users are also getting the new automatic dark mode feature starting today, but they’re going to have to keep waiting for the true black color theme, as Twitter says the Android version is still in the works.