While we’re mostly satisfied that a system-wide dark mode is finally upon us (or at least those who are running Android 10 already), there’s still something missing that most people are requesting for. Due to some technical reasons, Google did not include a dark mode scheduler for this version of the OS, to the dismay of those who want to have this mode automatically start when the sun goes down. The good news is that it may be making a return once Android 11 comes out.
In a post on XDA Developers, they said that Google previously had a scheduler for the dark mode to take effect when the sun goes down. But when the Android 10 stable version, that functionality disappeared. This is because they believe it might negatively affect the user experience since apps will have to restart and if you’re using it, then it can be kind of annoying. So they would rather you manually turn the dark mode on or off when it suits you.
Chris Banes from the Android Developer Relations team also shared that determining the sunrise/sunset times are kind of difficult and the calculations can sometimes be buggy. While apps like Night Light also calculate sunrise/sunset times, they use “a big chunk of code” which will require a lot of computing power that they didn’t want to put on the AppCompact version 1.1.0. So even if you wanted to have a scheduler, it would not work as well on your device.
But Android may have found a solution since a recent comment on the Google Issue Tracker seems to indicate that we might see the scheduler make an appearance on Android 11 next year. This will allow users to automatically schedule their devices to go on night mode as soon as the sun sets or when their surroundings become dark enough.
But while you’re waiting, there is a third-party app that can help you schedule your night mode. However, your device probably needs to be rooted and you will have to run a command via ADB so you need to have a computer on standby. If you can do that, you should check out the source link.
