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Android 10 has come, bringing the promise of the coveted dark theme and delivering in many apps on it. Finally, after waiting for a while, the Google Play Store is finally getting dark theme.
Play Store update 16.7.21, now available for download, brings dark theme. The dark theme layout is in line with what we’ve seen with many apps that already have the new theme that has gone systemwide in Android 10: the majority of the app is in dark gray, while the search bar is in a lighter gray shade. Colors, once brightened, have been muted to conform to the new dark theme. The screenshots below come courtesy of 9to5Google.
Dark Theme Conserves Battery Life
Google has been on the hunt to improve battery life for Android users, with two battery-saving modes called Doze Mode and Deeper Doze Mode. Neither achieves as much battery conservation as Google had hoped for, so after some time in fighting it, Google finally came to its senses and acknowledged that the dark theme is a superior option to the bright white theme it plastered throughout Android.
At the Android Dev conference last year, Google admitted as much with charts showing just how much battery life would be saved with a dark theme as opposed to the current white theme. Dark themes conserve battery life even more on phones with OLED panels, including Google’s own Pixel lineup but also including Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series.
Dark theme is excellent for battery life, but it’s also easy on the eyes and helps users sleep better at night. It’s been said that bright colors in user eyes at night can keep them up, increase fatigue, and contribute to overall restlessness. For a few years, “blue light filters” have been employed to remove blue light and make it easier on the eyes for users to sleep. Dark theme is something of a systemwide, automatic “Night Mode” that should provide even more ease on the eyes and improve winding down at bedtime.
Dark Theme arrives via Android 10
Google’s new Play Store dark theme comes, as does the dark theme for all apps, from the newly-announced Android 10. Announced earlier this month, Android 10 was released for Pixel phones, including the first-generation Pixel and Pixel XL.
Android 10 is predominantly characterized by the new systemwide dark theme, but there are other important components to the update as well. Among these is Live Caption, a feature that allows the hard-of-hearing (HoH) to read the words on-screen that are being said by persons on-screen. This means that those who struggle to hear as well as most won’t be left behind in the events on-screen. The feature will also come in handy for those with normal hearing capabilities that can’t turn up the volume on their devices while in the library or some other quiet, yet public place.
Smart Reply allows you to interact with notifications, such as letting you immediately go into Google Maps when you’re sent an address, for example. Phone gestures let you interact with your phone without relying on virtual buttons, and users now have greater privacy and location controls that let you limit how long you share your personal information with Android apps.
While Google is bringing the dark theme to the Play Store, it also has a dark theme in store for its Google Fi wireless service app for Fi customers.
Dark theme is what makes the Android 10 update exciting, really, and it’s nice to see Google bring that to the place where all the Android action begins: the Google Play Store.
