Google Confirms Dark Mode Is A Huge Help For Battery Life On Android

It may be well known that using dark/night mode on apps can increase the battery life of smartphones that have a OLED screen. It is true on both iOS and Android platforms. The main reason is that due to the dark areas on the screen, the individual pixels will have less work to do, resulting in less battery usage.

Google just reiterated this fact during the Android Dev Summit 2018 this week. They showed some slides comparing the power usage when displaying a few different colors. Google’s Pixel is the phone used in this test.

You can clearly see a big difference between the battery life that white and black color draw. And Google has to acknowledge that the white’s prominence across many Google’s apps and also within style guidelines of Android is not really ideal. The white color is basically everywhere, and that will not change with revamped Material Design of Google.

Fortunately, it seems like Google does recognize the dark mode’s value. It is already available for Android Messages and YouTube. And Google is reportedly bringing this feature the its Phone app and testing the feature in the Google Feed mobile as well.

Android’s users can also change the theme of the quick settings pulldown and app drawer to dark theme. But Google is still far from adding a system-wide night mode. This is a feature that Samsung already has a plan with its new One UI.

As an illustration of how dark mode can save your battery life, look at the big difference below. The Pixel brightness is set to be 100 percent. The dark mode’s usefulness in saving power is evident. Even though many users still prefer the traditional white look of apps, but it is still nice when Google is aware of the value of reducing easing up the white.