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Dark themes are the thing of the season these days and more and more apps are poised to add them. This will become especially true once Android Q rolls out to users later on this year as it will enable a system-wide dark theme to phones that are running the software. Google has already rolled out dark themes to many of its apps and the latest one to get this treatment will be the Files.
Files is Google’s version of app cleaner. Its main purpose is to help clean up junk files in your phone that are simply doing nothing but take up space unnecessarily. It can also help you free up space on a mass scale for things in your various folders like downloads and tell you about apps you may be able to uninstall based on the lack of use. In short it’s guessing that you aren’t planning on using it if it hasn’t been touched in a while and will suggest you install it to gain space back.
The dark theme, when it actually rolls out to users, will keep Google’s design of the app in line with every other one of its apps that already has a dark theme available, like Photos for example. It has another more functional purpose though and that’s the ability to help you save battery life. The brighter white light of the current theme uses up more battery so switching to a darker look will cut back on the drain.
The bright white design can also be rather blinding if you’re staring at the display in a darker room. Now with the dark theme coming it’ll help reduce eye strain. It might be more noticeable at night when it’s likely to be darker wherever you’re at, but it should make a difference during the day too.
In addition to the dark theme Files is also getting a new feature that allows users to better manage their entertainment inside of the app. For example, the new audio player features will let you listen to music offline more easily. The new features are a new set of controls, including fast forward, rewind, and skip controls. These new controls work for playing videos offline as well if you have any stored locally on your device and are accessing them from Files.
Google says that Files users will start to see the new dark theme and the new controls for audio and video this week, more specifically over the next few days. Some users likely already have the dark theme available while others may not see it until later today or sometime over the weekend. If you actually have Files installed and use it often enough, keep an eye out for the new features as they should be hitting the app any time now.
Google confirms that the roll out will be available to everyone, which means all users on Android who have the app will have access to it and not just certain regions.