If You Must Use Slack on Your Phone, Why Not Do It in Dark Mode?

For those of us attached to our phones or laptops during all hours of the day, Dark Mode offers a welcome alternative to the searing whiteness that usually greets our eyeballs. It’s the default pretty much everywhere: from documents to search engines and everywhere in between, including Slack.

For those of us attached to our phones or laptops during all hours of the day, Dark Mode offers a welcome alternative to the searing whiteness that usually greets our eyeballs. It’s the default pretty much everywhere: from documents to search engines and everywhere in between, including Slack.

But reader, there’s good news: Slack is testing a Dark Mode interface for its beta users. And if you’ve already joined the beta program, you may be able to test it right now. 9to5Mac reported Slack launched testing for Dark Mode in iOS earlier this week. And on Saturday, 9to5Google reported that Android was also rolling the feature out to its beta Android users.

Screengrabs of the app on both operating systems show Slack’s Dark Mode comes in a sleek, deep dark gray. Per 9to5Google, the Dark Mode covers the majority of the app–including in-app menus and pop-ups–though the site did note that it doesn’t appear to touch “the color palette of the Slack room.”

If you’re not yet part of Slack’s beta program, you can sign up a couple of ways: You can do it on the web right here, or you can sign up through the app. To do that, hit the three dots in the upper righthand corner in Slack and navigate to Settings. Once there, you’ll see an option to “Join Beta.”

It’s not clear how long new beta applicants will have to wait before they’re able to join the program, but we’ve reached out to Slack for more info and will update this post if we hear back.

If you’re already in the beta program and use either iOS or Android, congrats! You may be able to enable Dark Mode already. Make sure your app is up to date, and then navigate to your in-app Settings menu. There, you should see an option for enabling the theme.

As the Verge noted, there’s more to Dark Mode than simply dimming the blinding glare of your phone’s white screen. It can also be a power saver, a potential perk if you’re on Slack a lot.

Dark Mode is looking like a possibility for iOS and Android in 2019, and that’ll no doubt be a game-changer. But why not darken your apps where you can in the meantime?

[9to5Mac and 9to5Google via The Verge]