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Dark Mode all the things!
Google has recently been making headway on bringing a native Dark Mode to Chrome for desktop and even though it is still very much in the works, I’m pretty excited. I’m a huge fan of dark modes and themes on all of my devices.
Currently, tinkering with Chrome’s Dark Mode requires downloading one of the experimental builds of the browser and modifying the executable target with the dark UI flag.
This is meant for Chrome on Windows and reportedly Mac. If you’d like to give it a go, the details are documented very will by 9to5Google’s Kyle Bradshaw here.
The cool part about trying this one out is that the Canary build of Chrome for desktop is its own, separate download. Known to be quite unstable, you can tinker with Chrome Canary but still use the Stable version as your default browser.
Chrome OS, on the other hand, requires what can sometimes be very tumultuous hacking for users wishing to try out new features. Thankfully, there are a few brave souls who dare to live on the “bleeding edge” and dive into the often volatile channel that is Chrome OS Canary.
One such Reddit user has discovered that Chrome’s dark mode can be activated on Chrome OS with a few, slightly risky modifications to the operating system.
WARNING! Do Not Attempt
There, now we have that out of the way. Don’t get me wrong, I practically live in the Canary channel. I strongly recommend that only those who know their way around and back every go there but this requires much more than simply changing channels.
Redditor u/JediBurrell was able to add the flags --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode and --force-dark-mode using the Crosh shell on his Pixelbook and the result was a new, Dark Mode for Chrome OS.
You can see in the image above that the system UI has been completely altered to black and you’ll find more images in u/JediBurrell’s Imgur post here.
I will repeat. DO NOT TRY THIS! As the Redditor clearly outlines, there are a lot of bugs in this new UI not to mention the fact that modifying Chrome OS core files could completely bork your device. Many things are still a “work in progress” and some pages are even present as white text on white backgrounds. Not pretty, at all.
I tip my hat to Jedi for making this work and sharing it with the world. I know that a lot of users despise dark themes but clearly, there are enough of us who fancy it that developers are working to bring it into Chrome across the board.
For the last time, don’t try this. However, if you’d like to read more about how u/JediBurrell made this work or maybe even join in on the conversation, you can do so here.
Check Out Chrome Unboxed’s Top Picks On AmazonBonus: Did you know that the Chromium Repository has a Dark Mode? Check it out!
Source: Reddit via Chrome Story
