Chrome OS may be welcoming a dark mode at long last, if findings found via the browser’s Canary channel are any indication.
According to Android Central, the Canary version of Chrome OS contains an experimental version of Chrome OS’s hotly-anticipated dark mode. It may only be accessed via Google’s “bleeding edge” developer mode of the browser, but that could indicate that it’s being readied for a wider rollout at some point in the future.
Canary is typically used for feature updates before they’ve had the testing needed for a widespread release. It’s only available to access by way of Chromebooks that utilize a special developer mode because of its instability, so you have to know what you’re looking for to access it.
If you’re interested in seeing dark mode for yourself, you’ll need to install the Canary channel on your Chromebook. Android Central reports that you can open up a Chrome and type in the following into the URL bar to enable dark mode: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark and chrome://flags/#enable-webui-dark-mode.
Of course, given the dev environment and the fact that it takes some effort to trigger, you’ll likely see bugs within this new dark mode if applied. However, if it’s working correctly, you should see its reach expanded across the entirety of the Chromebook UI instead of offering up darker backgrounds across certain sites.
This is an option users will likely be excited to see debut, as Google has dark modes for most of its other products already, including Gmail. Google has yet to announce any plans for Chrome OS’s dark mode, and as such there’s no date for any larger rollout. For now, we’ll have to remain content with testing the feature on our own.
