Facebook has been working on a dark mode for Facebook Messenger for some time, since more and more services, including Twitter and YouTube, offer this option.
Until recently, after the launch of an Easter Egg in March, Facebook Messenger’s new dark mode feature was hidden away. It only would become available to activate if users sent a crescent moon emoji to a friend. The method worked both on Android and iOS smartphones. Now it seems this month-long teaser is coming to an end, as Facebook Messenger decides to hop on the dark theme bandwagon.
On Monday, the social media giant finally announced the official launch of the dark mode, which is now available to switch on via an easily accessible Setting toggle.
How to Enabling Facebook Messenger Dark Mode
For those of you that haven’t already activated Messenger’s dark mode, here is how you can do it:
- First of all, you need to make sure you are running the latest version of the app. You can update Messenger by heading to your phone’s respective app store.
- Next, open Messenger and tap the icon of your profile picture in the upper left corner of the main screen.
- From here, you can just enable the ”Dark Mode” toggle switch at the top of the menu.
Once activated, it’s a true black dark mode, that ”provides lower brightness while maintaining contrast and vibrancy”, as Facebook’s Bridget Pujals wrote on April 15th in a blog post. This will also help you save battery life on phones with OLED screens like the iPhone XS or Galaxy S10.
“Dark mode cuts down the glare from your phone for use in low light situations, so you can use the Messenger features you love no matter when or where you are” Pujals also wrote.
Dorothy has been a journalist for ten years and has been working with the Tech News Watch staff since the beginning of the news site. Her main contribution to Tech News Watch are mobile, IT and science news, with a focus on software updates and great outer space discoveries.