OnePlus wants its users to experience dark themes regardless of support for developers. The Chinese smartphone maker is reportedly testing a new forced dark mode for more applications in OxygenOS. Dark Mode was one of the long requested features by Android users. Google added a system-wide dark theme with the release of Android 10 last year. While there is system-wide dark mode, developers are yet to overwhelmingly embrace this new feature.
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services, took its own sweet time to extend this feature to all devices. Now, OnePlus might have a way to push dark mode to a number of applications. XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username found strings within the Settings app in the latest OxygenOS Open Beta 11. This beta version was released for the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro recently. These strings suggest that OnePlus is looking at a way to force dark mode for a number of applications.
OnePlus wants to force dark mode: Here is how
XDA Developers were able to surface the settings page showing this new feature. However, it was unable to ascertain which apps will be supported under this feature. The feature is being dubbed as “Enable dark tone in more apps” in the settings page. The description reads, “Make apps that don’t support dark theme also appear as dark tone.” This feature, however, comes with a caveat of apps not behaving properly due to forced dark mode. The same is being noted by OnePlus in the Settings page as well.
The idea behind forcing dark mode to all apps seems to be inspired by DarQ. The DarQ allows Android 10 users to enable the built-in forced dark mode on a per-app basis. There is an option for users to choose which apps they wish to turn dark within the settings. The app lets users retain light mode on apps that do not react well to forced dark mode. We might see OnePlus implement similar features or settings with an updated release of the open beta.
