by Daniel Dunne
Dark Mode for Android and iOS is a popular setting for many smartphone and
tablet users across the globe regardless of the user's level of vision. The
benefits of Dark Mode not only make it easier for some visually impaired
users to navigate and use their device but also serve as an important
energy-saving measure for your device.
Dark Mode is a beneficial energy-saving measure because of a very simple
logic - the colour black on your screen requires almost no power to display,
whereas white does. So, where you have a majority Black screen with white
text, the power consumed to display that text is much lower than if the
background was white with black text!
For a good proportion (not all) of low-vision users, Dark Mode has the
benefit of also making it easier to see text on the screen. Dark Mode by its
nature will have much less glare - a common source of eye strain and
fatigue. It will also have the benefit of increasing contrast which is
comfortable for some too.
It's well worth it to try out Dark Mode to see if it works for you. On
Android, Dark Mode is easily turned on or off by going into Settings and
selecting the Display option. Here, Dark Mode or Light Mode is the first
choice. Similarly, iOS is easy - go to Settings, Display and likewise both
Light Mode and Dark Mode are the first choice to set.
While these settings on both Android and iOS perform well across much of the
phone, we still though from time to time encounter Apps that don't display
in Dark Mode if that is what we've set in the display settings. We jokingly
refer to these as 'disobedient' apps, though all joking aside - this can be
a royal pain for our low-vision users who really rely on Dark Mode to be
able to function.
To be fair, Google and Apple cannot 'force' third-party app makers to
implement Dark Mode when you the phone/tablet owner have set Dark Mode in
the settings menu. It is up to the developers of these 'disobedient' apps to
do it. Credit though to Google and Apple as they know it will take a long
time for many app makers to get around to making their apps better.
Apple and Google have provided 'workarounds' that can force or override apps
into Dark Mode through a feature called 'Smart Invert' (iOS) or 'Colour
Inversion' (Android). Both Android and iOS have different methods which I
will go through below in a moment. It is interesting to read how both go
about it and to see the pros and cons of each solution. I am on the fence as
to which is the best method, but Android's workaround is the most flexible.
Android*: The solution here keeping in with Android's "on-demand" approach
to many accessibility settings provided. So, when you encounter an app or a
website that just doesn't display in dark mode, you - the user can 'do
something' to force a change. I say, do something because Google is nice in
the sense that they give you three options in the method of switching on/off
their colour inversion feature.
Colour inversion as you may have guessed flips colours around! So, where you
have an app or a website that is only showing a white background with black
text, you can invert or flip that around. To get to this setting, go to
Settings, Accessibility, and head on to Visibility Enhancements. In the list
here is 'Colour Inversion'. The trick is not to switch it on yet, instead -
tap on the words colour inversion to reveal an options menu. You should now
have a colour inversion shortcut option. Select this option and turn it on.
The three options for colour inversion now appear. The first one is the 'Tap
Accessibility button' - however some users may already be using the
accessibility button for features such as 'Select-to-Speak'.
Perhaps one of the two remaining options would be better here? Those are 1)
press and hold the volume up and down keys together for three seconds, or 2)
press the side (power) and volume up keys together. The side and volume up
keys together are probably the fastest option if you've already assigned the
'Tap Accessibility button' to do another function.
With that set, it's now time to exit the settings and head over to the App
or website that's behaving badly! Try out the shortcut you set and put
Colour Inversion into action.
Now for the Pros and Cons of Android's solution. Pros: This setting can be
switched on/off anywhere on the phone or tablet including web browsers.
There are three options from which you can pick. Cons: Unfortunately, colour
inversion applies to photographs - so If you need to view imagery, graphs,
etc. you will be switching on and off the setting more often. Also, if you
employ the buttons as your switch - it can be tough for users with dexterity
issues. So, you may have to rely on the tap accessibility button option
which adds another tap if you assign more than one accessibility setting.
iOS: Apple has a different approach to offering 'smart invert' to their
users in the sense that you can set individual apps to display in smart
invert mode. To do this, go into Settings and then into Accessibility. At
the bottom of the Accessibility menu, there is a menu called 'Per-App
settings.' Here you can dictate different settings each App must display.
The first thing here is to see if your 'App that's behaving badly' is
listed. If it is not, simply select 'Add App' and pick it from the list of
all apps on your iOS device.
Once added, you are returned to the Per-App settings menu.
Now, select the App you want to adjust, and a menu will appear with many
options with which you can toy. Down the list is Smart Invert and we are
going to change this from 'Default' to 'On'. Next, we exit Settings and head
on over to the app we adjusted. Your App should now display in Dark Mode
where it didn't before!
Pros: Apple's Smart Invert is a little 'smarter' than Google's Colour
Inversion because it generally does not adjust photographs. Because you're
applying the Smart Invert to 'just that App' there is a set-it-and-forget-it
approach that is simple! Cons: The letdown is websites because if you set
your browser (usually Safari) to Smart Invert, it will mess up viewing of
websites that do obey Dark Mode. However, there is another option here which
I will explain below.
The workaround for websites on iOS feels rather similar to Android's
solution we mentioned above. On iOS, head over to Settings and open the
Accessibility settings. Down at the bottom of the menu just above the
'Per-App Settings' is the 'Accessibility Shortcut' menu. Open this and put a
tick beside the 'Smart Invert' option. We can now triple-press the side
button (power button) to turn on/off the Smart Invert when we encounter a
website that we want to force Dark Mode on.
Note: iOS has 'Classic Invert' in the options which will ignore photographs
and invert those too. It is a rarely used option though.
I hope the above guide proves useful to some of our readers. Don't forget
you can contact your local Vision Ireland technology trainer for support on
any of the above settings or contact the VI Labs Helpdesk on 1800 911 110 or
email:
labs@xxxxx <mailto:labs@xxxxx>
* The Android system used in the guide above was a Samsung A71 running
Android 13 - other Android phones may differ.
Vision Ireland Technology News.
