The internet never sleeps, meaning you can stare at a brightly lit display at all hours of the day, potentially messing with your sleep and putting strain on your eyes. Turn down the lights by enabling dark mode in your browser.
Many popular mobile apps offer darker color schemes, but on the web, the color theme of each website is set by the site’s developer (Google just rolled out a dark theme for Google.com on the desktop). Still, you can make the browsing experience easier on the eyes by changing the color of menu pages or playing with certain experimental features. Here’s how to do it in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Set Dark Mode in Chrome
Chrome doesn’t offer an official dark mode in the desktop app, but it does honor your system settings in Windows and macOS. Just go to Settings > Personalization > Colors on a Windows 10 PC (it’s slightly different on Windows 11), or System Preferences > General > Appearance on a Mac to change the computer’s default theme. Chrome will then change its colors to match what you prefer.
If you’re looking to change Chrome directly, you can turn to the Chrome Web Store and look under Themes to find and install the color theme you want. Color themes can always be removed under Settings > Appearance, then click Reset to default.
Chrome’s Android app has an official dark mode that you can enable in just a few steps. Make sure you have the most updated version of Chrome for Android and then tap the three-dot menu and select Settings > Theme. You can then select Dark or System default, if dark mode is enabled at the system level.
If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, you will have to rely on the system theme you have set. Head to Settings > Display & Brightness, then select Dark.
Set Dark Mode in Firefox
Firefox follows the color scheme of your operating system by default, but you can also take direct control. Open the browser’s hamburger menu and select Settings > Extensions & Themes. Click Themes to open the Manage Your Themes page, then select the theme you wish to use, such as Dark.
For more options, scroll down to Recommended Themes and click Install Theme on any you like. Click Find more add-ons to search among all available Firefox add-ons. Or make your own theme by clicking Build your own theme with Firefox Color and installing the add-on.
You can set the theme on Android by opening the three-dot menu in the app and going to Settings > Customize. Under Theme, select Dark or Follow device theme. For iPhones and iPads, select the hamburger menu and tap Turn on Night Mode.
Set Dark Mode in Safari
Safari does not offer its own dark mode, though it does support the greater macOS dark theme. On your Mac, navigate to System Preferences > General > Dark to darken the operating system. This, in turn, will make Safari’s menus black.
You can also set individual pages to dark mode through Safari’s Reader View feature, which offers a stripped-down version of an article. To use this feature, open a page you wish to read; tap the aA symbol in the address bar and select the darkest shade in the drop-down menu.
Safari also uses the default system theme on mobile, so you can set dark mode on iPhone and iPad to darken your browser’s color. Navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness > Dark and toggle that option to on.
Set Dark Mode in Edge
Microsoft’s Edge is based on Google’s Chromium browser, but unlike Chrome, it actually has a built-in dark mode. It uses the system theme by default, but you can change it manually by opening the three-dot menu and going to Settings > Appearance. Choose “dark” under Overall appearance. Pick a color theme to further customize the browser’s top menu bar, if desired.
On an Android device, tap the three-dot menu at the bottom of the browser and select Settings > Appearance and choose Dark or Device (Default). For an iPhone or iPad, tap the same three-dot menu and open Settings, then scroll down to the Theme section, and select Device or Dark to change the theme.
