Dark Mode or Black Mode? WeChat has confused everyone

A while ago, WeChat officially added support for "dark mode", which is the first time that WeChat supports dark mode from the system level except for the Windows Phone version. Although this update has been 9 months since the demonstration at WWDC, it has once again pushed the four words "dark mode" to the forefront.

In addition to the urgent need for "dark mode", there are also many discussions about WeChat dark mode on the Internet. For example, some people gave bad reviews because "dark mode is not a pure black background", but some people disagree and criticize the pure black background. So today, we take this opportunity to talk about how to do dark mode?

WeChat is also a last resort

Let's first talk about the dark mode of WeChat Android. As early as the Android 4.0 era, Google's Holo design had two sets of design color schemes, dark and light. However, influenced by the design style at the time, neither the first-party Google nor other third-party software could adapt to the dark Holo design, and all used the light color scheme.

Due to the development environment, Google's Android-related developer guidelines do not have much influence in China. Many mobile phone brands have replaced the native Android control style (such as the color of the switch) with the style of their own mobile phone brands. If the software is developed strictly in accordance with Google's developer guidelines, the results will be neither fish nor fowl.

WeChat, which was born in this chaotic era, had to choose to "reinvent the wheel" by itself. It did not use any styles from Google examples, but wrote its own application style from scratch, so that different brands of mobile phones could have the same WeChat experience.

Although WeChat's "self-reliance" approach is admirable, the current Android is no longer the Android of the past. With the expansion of domestic brands in overseas markets, the design style of domestic brand mobile phone systems has gradually moved closer to the Android envisioned by Google. In the case that Android P has officially added dark mode, insisting on not following the application design guidelines and not providing a formal version of dark mode seems a bit "maverick".

But this cannot be entirely blamed on WeChat. As a "national-level" application, WeChat has a user base that is difficult to match for most mobile apps. For an app with over 1 billion users, even 0.01% negative reviews mean 100,000 different opinions. In this case, WeChat is naturally cautious in every step. Especially since different users have different expectations for dark mode, WeChat has to be even more cautious.

For example, the UI design of WeChat Android version is similar to that of iOS version. Although some people have been hoping that WeChat can follow Android application design specifications and adopt Google-led material design, WeChat has remained unmoved. However, seven years ago, WeChat briefly launched a version of WeChat with "Google style" that followed the Android design specifications at that time.

Because this version was released suddenly without any notice or public beta, this "Google version" of WeChat quickly received negative reviews from a large number of users. Soon after, the design style of WeChat Android version returned to the iOS version and has continued to this day. WeChat has also become very cautious about this kind of interface change that is likely to cause controversy among users.

Dark Mode is Not Black Mode

Some people may think, "Dark Mode is just turning white into black, what's so difficult about it?" Actually, it is not. The design of Dark Mode is more sophisticated than that of Light Mode. You must have noticed that what I just mentioned is "Dark Mode" instead of "Dark Mode" or "Black Mode". This is the first design point of Dark Mode, and it is also the most controversial point about Dark WeChat. Dark Mode is not equal to Black Mode.

Since I don't have the iOS design document downloaded, I'll use the design guidelines recommended by Google as an example. Google said that the advantages of dark mode are:

• Can significantly reduce power consumption (depending on the device's screen technology).
• Improves visibility for users with low vision and those who are sensitive to bright light.
• Makes it easier for everyone to use their devices in low-light environments.

It can be seen that although power saving is one of the characteristics of dark mode, it is not the only feature of dark mode. For OLED panels, a pure black background can save power, but using a pure black background will also increase the contrast of the text, which is more likely to cause eye fatigue.

Therefore, in the design guidelines, Google recommends using dark gray (#121212) as the application background instead of pure black, which is more power-saving. Google's long-term color research shows that dark gray surfaces can show a wider range of colors, heights, and depths because it is easier to see gray shades. Dark gray surfaces can also reduce eye fatigue because light text on a dark gray surface has a lower contrast than light text on a black surface.

The iOS version of WeChat uses dark gray instead of pure black for this reason: for apps like WeChat that require reading text, a dark gray background can reduce eye fatigue. In addition to WeChat, the iOS built-in memo does not use pure black in dark mode, but uses a dark gray texture as the background.

In addition to these modern applications, the fact that dark backgrounds are more suitable for nighttime use than black backgrounds has actually been reflected in the early days of smartphones. For example, although the Kindle reading software provides a pure black background, its night mode still uses a dark gray background, and the text is not pure white, but a more comfortable light gray. Or to take an earlier example, UC Browser in the pre-touch screen era, didn’t its night mode also use a dark blue background?

Although I think WeChat's dark mode still has a lot of room for improvement, I believe everyone is still positive about the addition of dark mode. Although it is 9 months late, for those of us who need to use mobile phones anytime and anywhere, dark mode is indeed very practical. Whether it is iOS or Android platform, I hope that more applications adapted to dark mode will appear in the future.