Like some ’90s hacker wannabe, I love staring at dark screens. It’s easier on the eyes and generally feels more bad arse. Thanks to a long overdue Mac app update, I can read Twitter in dark mode. Now, I want everything in dark mode.
The Twitter app update is actually better described as a total overhaul. It’s about much more than some lovely design tweaks. Features that have been available for ages in the browser — things like animated GIFs, video playback, muting, embedded or “quoted” tweets, as well as group DMs — make the app more fun to use. But damn that dark mode option is beautiful. Why don’t all apps do this?
A lot of them do, actually. Spotify is the obvious dark horse of app design, and there are countless dark themes for Chrome. What Mac users are still missing, though, is a full fledged dark mode that washes away all those glaring, headache-inducing white spaces. Apple was reportedly going to include a full-fledged dark mode for OS X as long ago as 2009, but it never totally materialised. With Yosemite, you could switch to dark menu bars which is cool enough, I guess. Still, the screen’s too bright for these tired eyes.
Is it possible to hack it with a themes app? Sure. Flavours is a popular one, though it does not yet work with OS X El Capitan. But I tried some bootleg program years ago and totally screwed up my laptop, so I’m waiting for the official Apple-branded dark mode like a big doofus. Like a fine wine, I hope dark mode will only get better with age.
[Twitter]