Chromebook automatic Dark Mode scheduler finally hits ChromeOS Canary

It’s been almost an entire year since code commits for an automated dark mode for ChromeOS began appearing in the repositories, indicating that the developers were working on a way to prevent users from having to constantly flick the Dark Mode toggle on their Chromebook’s shelf tray each time they woke up or sat down to use their device in the late evening.

Early reports showed that a “sunset to sunrise” option and even a “custom” time option would become available, and before now, we speculated that they would appear in the Settings app with the display options. However, ever since the Personalization Hub became a thing, Dark Mode toggles have resided there, and about a month ago, I noticed an “Auto” option for it. At the time, clicking it did absolutely nothing.

C2 Productions on Twitter recorded the video below showing that this is now working! At long last, this feature is shipping with ChromeOS, but unfortunately, it’s only in the Canary channels so far as I can tell. I also have it on my Pixelbook Go, which is in Canary as well. Once switched over to “Auto”, the dark mode toggle in the shelf tray shows “On until Sunrise”, meaning that it will automatically change your entire Chromebook UI back to white once the sun comes up in the AM.

Quite frankly, I’m not sure why such a feature took an entire year to implement. Dark Mode has been working for a very long time, and automating it based on the Chromebook’s internal clock should have been a piece of cake from a programming standpoint, I think.

As I’m not sure what other roadblocks the developers may have faced or what complexities presented themselves along the way, I can’t say for certain, but I hope that the auto light and dark scheduler makes its way to ChromeOS Stable sooner rather than later. Once it does, it will pair beautifully with the new auto light and dark switching wallpaper collections “Radiance” and “Elements”.