Twitter has rolled out the night mode feature for iOS. This release comes roughly a month after the Android rollout on July 26.
The announcement came via a tweet.
Rolling out today – we're bringing night mode to iOS! https://t.co/XxNZHQdth9 pic.twitter.com/WLwKi4H0Oe
— Twitter (@twitter) August 22, 2016
The update is over-the-air (OTA) and hence, no need to redownload the app. All that's needed is to restart the phone. A similar effect can be achieved by removing the application from the multitasking tray and opening it up again. Double tapping the home button should bring up the said multitasking tray.
To enable the night mode feature for iOS, Twitter instructs to select the "Me" tab. Tapping the gear icon should bring up the night mode option. A simple swipe can turn it on or off. It's pretty straightforward and accessible just like that of the Android version.
Once the night mode is enabled, the entire app background will change from the conventional white to dark gray. Correspondingly, the black text will turn to white and the hyperlinked texts turn to a dark shade of blue. Turning off night mode will have the app revert to the conventional setting with white background and black text.
The night mode feature for Twitter became popular through Joaquim Vergès' Falcon Pro Twitter app on Android. Twitter hired Vergès in August 2015 to join its developer team and almost a year later, the night mode for Android got released.
More developers may incorporate the same feature with their apps and devices in the coming future. However, this should not be taken as a trend. It's more of a manufacturer/developer responsibility.
Moreover, it should be questioned whether enabling people to do more stuff with their devices during the night is a good thing or not. Bear in mind that bright LEDs (backlit displays) mislead the brain into thinking that it is still daytime.
A 2015 study published in the Frontiers in Public Health journal called for the corporate world to employ strategies in order to reduce the effects of exposure to short-wavelength light, which computers, tablets, cell phones and most modern-day gadgets produce, before bedtime.
"You'd need to drink a lot of coffee to postpone sleep onset and melatonin production as much as bright light exposure would," comments Paul Gringras, a professor of sleep medicine and neurodisability and part of the research team responsible for the aforementioned study.
Note that melatonin is also known as the sleep hormone.
Some manufacturers have already responded. In fact, Apple introduced the night shift mode to its own devices with the iOS 9.3 update, which was released earlier this year. Whether the rest of the manufacturers follow suit still remains to be seen.
