Dark mode on phones is more or less everywhere at this point, and you might struggle to find an app that doesn’t support it in some shape or form. But there are still a few stragglers out there, and it sounds like Google may be working to fix that particular issue with Android 16.
If this sounds familiar it’s because we heard something similar last year, with news that Android 15 may force apps into dark mode whether they like it or not.
Obviously that never made it to the final version of Android 15, which is where Android 16 comes in.
According to Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority, this feature has reappeared in Android 16 beta 1. It sounds like it would do more than the typical “override force-dark” toggle that most Android phones offered as a developer option.
Instead Rahman notes that this “make all apps dark” feature seemed to flip the colors in a more intelligent way. However some changes do seem to have happened.
Now seemingly called “make more apps dark”, this setting can be found in the “Dark theme” section of the “Display & Touch” menu. It is still apparently a hidden feature, though, which means it’s out of reach of all but the most experienced Android sleuths. Even Rahman himself claimed that it took “a bit of effort” to surface the settings.
Rahman notes that the feature itself is seemingly unchanged from Android 15, though the description has been updated. Now it says “automatically convert light-themed apps to dark theme”. While minimal, that change suggests that Google is still working on the feature, and we’re hoping that it does see a rollout in the full version of Android 16 when it launches later this year.
Frankly, I’ll be quite happy not to have to worry about whether an app is going to blind me when I open it — especially if I’m using it at night.
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