Support for dark mode has finally arrived even on Messenger, Facebook's instant chat. Here's how to activate
The dark mode, that is, the dark theme, is available on Facebook Messenger. And this time it's for everyone and not an "Easter Egg". It is Facebook itself, in fact, to announce that it is proceeding since yesterday with the roll out of this new and long-awaited feature on its instant messaging service.
The dark theme has not yet arrived to everyone, but will arrive within a few days. For some, it will be necessary to update the application. Within a couple of weeks, most likely even less, dark mode will officially be a feature of Messenger and it will be "really dark": the background is black and the fonts white, as well as the switch icons. The text boxes of messages already exchanged, however, are of a blue perhaps a little too bright to not bother the eyes at night. In any case, however, it will take a short period of adaptation to the new colors to get used to it and to fully enjoy the benefits of dark mode on Facebook Messenger.
How to activate the dark theme on Messenger
If you're already among the lucky ones to have received the roll out of Facebook Messenger's dark theme, to activate it you just need to open the app and tap on your profile picture in the top left corner. Then you'll have to choose the settings and there, right at the top, you'll find the switch to activate the dark mode. From that moment on, the entire interface of your Messenger will be dark.
What's the purpose of the dark theme
The main advantage of the dark theme, for many owners of the new smartphones with OLED screens, is energy saving: keeping the pixels of the screen on to project white light, in fact, consumes a lot of battery power. For everyone else, however, the dark theme is a boon for the eyes when using Messenger in the evening or at night: looking at a very bright screen surrounded by darkness, in fact, is not good for the eyes at all. Finally, lowering the overall brightness of the screen before bed, according to doctors, promotes sleep.
Enable the dark theme with the crescent moon
Even if your Messenger app hasn't received the dark theme yet, though, you can still enable it with a simple trick: have someone send you a crescent moon emoji. This is the latest Easter Egg from Facebook that allowed a lot of users to experience dark mode on Messenger, and on many apps, this trick still works. Should it not work, however, you'll just have to wait but, this time, it's really close.