Google Confirms Dark Mode Is A Huge Help For Battery Life On Android
Donald
If you want to help save even more battery juice on your Android phone, switch as many apps to its dark theme. You can even set your background to black and definitely stay away from animated wallpapers. Also, since this works on your phone, you can apply the same logic to improve the battery life of your laptop using Dark Mode on Windows 10, for example.
Google confirms dark mode is a huge help for battery life on Android
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The real question rises on whether using this mode has any advantages over the previously in-demand light themed interfaces or is it just a personal preference. A scientific research has targeted both parties of this discussion and has revealed some note-worthy results for those of us who have yet to settle on a choice;
Another important thing about the dark theme is that it could be classified as a battery-saver feature on all devices which we use daily. Google has confirmed that using dark mode on OLED screens has been a huge help for battery life. Another example would be that at 50% brightness, the dark mode interface of the YouTube app, saves us about 15% screen energy compared to a flat white background. And last but not least, it looks amazing! It is getting more popular it started with web developers did you know that?
The idea has come from many coding programs and has been used widely by developers as skins in different programming applications. Since programmers spend several long hours every day staring at their screens, the dark background can reduce eye strain and thus give them more productive hours to stare at their screens!
Since a great number of users choose this app to use for long hours for purposes such as texting, or content creation, they have started to demand that it keeps up with the trendy features and want this app to include the dark mode.
Dark mode apps can prolong the battery life of your smartphone. Google has confirmed that using dark mode on OLED screens has been a huge help for battery life. For example, at 50% brightness, the Dark Mode interface in the YouTube app saves about 15% screen energy compared to a flat white background. At 100% screen brightness, the dark interface is saving a whopping 60% of screen energy.
Colors seem to just pop up better on dark backgrounds. The table demonstrating levels of contrast and performance of different color combinations highlight an interesting fact: the black part of the table is the only one that provides good contrast for practically all the colors.
The color of items in an interface may also completely change how we are interacting with the content. There is some research that explores the correlation between the retention of users and using dark mode, which makes it an interesting opportunity for app developers. Eyes get less tired at night, so basically you are able to consume the content for longer periods. If you are like me, who loves to read before going to bed, then having a dark mode really makes it easier on your eyes.
Some users find dark mode displays more visually appealing, and claim that it can reduce eye strain.[1] Displaying white at full brightness uses roughly six times as much power as pure black on a 2016 Google Pixel, which has an OLED display.[2] However, conventional LED displays cannot benefit from reduced power consumption.[3] Most modern operating systems support an optional light-on-dark color scheme.[4]
With the introduction of computer screens, originally user interfaces were formed on cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) like those used for oscillographs or oscilloscopes. The phosphor was normally a very dark color, and lit up brightly when the electron beam hit it, appearing to be white, green, blue, or amber on a black background, depending on phosphors applied on a monochrome screen. RGB screens continued to operate similarly, using all the beams set to "on" to form white.
With the advent of teletext, research was done into which primary and secondary light colors and combinations worked best for this new medium.[5] Cyan or yellow on black was typically found to be optimal from a palette of black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
Microsoft introduced a dark theme in the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 in 2016.[6] In 2018, Apple followed in macOS Mojave.[7] In September 2019, iOS 13 and Android 10 both introduced dark modes.[8][9]
While an OLED will consume around 40% of the power of an LCD displaying an image that is primarily black, it can use more than three times as much power to display an image with a white background, such as a document or web site.[13] This can lead to reduced battery life and energy usage unless a light-on-dark color scheme is used. The long-term reduced power usage may also prolong battery life or the useful life of the display and battery.
The energy savings that can be achieved using a light-on-dark color scheme are because of how OLED screens work: in an OLED screen, each subpixel generates its own light and it only consumes power when generating light. This is in contrast to how an LCD works: in an LCD, subpixels either block or allow light from an always-on (lit) LED backlight to pass through.
"AMOLED Black" color schemes (that use pure black instead of dark gray) do not necessarily save more energy than other light-on-dark color schemes that use dark gray instead of black, as the power consumption on an AMOLED screen decreases proportionately to the average brightness of the displayed pixels. Although it is true that AMOLED black does save more energy than dark gray, the additional energy savings are often negligible; AMOLED black will only give an additional energy saving of less than 1%, for instance, over the dark gray that's used in the dark theme for Google's official Android apps.[14] In November 2018, Google confirmed that dark mode on Android saved battery life.[15]
Some argue that a color scheme with light text on a dark background is easier to read on the screen, because the lower overall brightness causes less eyestrain. Others[16][17][18] argue to the contrary. Some pages on the web are designed for white backgrounds; Image assets (GIF, PNG, SVG, WOFF, etc) can be used improperly causing visual artifacts if dark mode is forced (instead of designed for) with a plugin like darkreader.
There is a prefers-color-scheme media feature on CSS, to detect if the user has requested light or dark color scheme and serve the requested color scheme. It can be indicated from the user's operating system preference or a user agent.[11][19]
In a recent survey of 115 mobile users asking what mode they generally have their mobile device in, roughly 1/3 said dark mode, 1/3 said light mode, and 1/3 said a combination of both. The argument that dark mode improves the user experience (and accessibility in some cases) always seems to circle back to the same few reasons, mentioned by users, designers, and developers alike:
The truth is that dark mode can save battery only on devices with OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) displays. As of 2023, roughly half of smartphones being produced use an OLED display. For reference, the first iPhone to use an OLED display was the iPhone X, which was released in 2017. OLED displays control each pixel individually and send only as much power to each one as needed at any given time. This means that, when portions of a design use dark colors, those pixels can use less power than those displaying brighter colors. Pixels displaying pure black (#000000) can be turned off completely and save the most power.
A study at Purdue University found an average of 67% reduction in power consumption by using dark mode when the screen brightness was at 100%. However, at only 30% screen brightness, the average power savings from using dark mode dropped to only 14%. In other words, screen brightness is as important as the display mode when it comes to battery consumption.
Over time, various research studies have shown that dark mode can benefit individuals with cloudy-ocular-media conditions, such as cataracts. In such disorders, the various transparent media in the eye (e.g., lens) reflect light in a fuzzier manner and, when there is a lot of light, it is harder for the eye to focus.
However, it is not debatable that many users like the dark mode aesthetic, which might be reason enough to support it. (Just not at the expense of fixing real usability issues!) Additionally, the benefits for those with visual impairments are also important and should be discussed as part of larger accessibility considerations within the organization. Aesthetic appeal and improved accessibility are the strongest arguments for supporting dark mode.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to observe participants in their natural environments using designs for long periods, such as reading at night in a dark room. We also acknowledge that a user-testing environment sometimes leads people to deviate from their normal behaviors and priorities. However, we would be very surprised to see users avoid or abandon a design because it does not support dark mode.
To maintain the legibility of text in logos, consider adding strokes, glows, shadows, or gradients that will be visible in dark mode but invisible in light mode. This strategy can be especially helpful in email communications, because email clients may display your messages in both light and dark modes. Even though you may be able to request that the email client use two different logo versions for dark and light mode, there is no guarantee that all email clients will comply.
When choosing the color of fonts in dark mode, use one color with different levels of opacity. This allows you to accommodate different background colors throughout the interface. Using one color consistently at 100% opacity (such as a light gray) will look good on some backgrounds, and poor on others.
Highly saturated colors on dark backgrounds have poor visibility and do not comply with accessibility guidelines, such as the WCAG 2 requirement of a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
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