Google might soon natively support Dark Mode for Chrome, at least on macOS Mojave. Keen-eyed Reddit users spotted a Google developer's recent code commit, which appears to implement system-level Dark Mode in Chromium.
Chromium is the open source web browser on which Chrome and a lot of other web browsers are based. The code change has passed the review process, meaning it will be implemented into a future version of Chrome, although it's not exactly clear which one.
Chrome Version 71
Google just recently released Chrome version 71, but it did not include native support for Dark Mode. It did, however, contain a bunch of new stuff, such as changes to how autoplay works plus a number of new improvements centered on security.
What Is Chromium?
For the uninitiated, Google engineers always test beta features on different versions of Chrome first before rolling them out to the general public. All code changes begin in Chromium and, if they pass, move on to Canary, Chrome Dev, Chrome Beta, then finally to Chrome, the stable, consumer-facing version of Chrome that mainstream users have access to.
Dark Mode
Currently, Dark Mode is hidden in feature flags, which are essentially code-level toggle switches. However, developers can run a Terminal command on their macOS Mojave machine to force the Dark Mode on. MacRumors has published screenshots showing off the darker appearance, which seems to look similar to Chrome's Incognito page, albeit a bit darker. The Google homepage is coated in black — pure black, not off-gray as typical of Dark Mode apps in Google's other mobile apps — and features the Google logo with a rounded search bar just below, plus a couple of quick links.
Dark Mode practically coats every element of the browser, including the omnibox, tabs, menus, bookmark bar, status bar, and dialog boxes. However, according to one developer working on the project, most of the current Dark Mode colors in Chromium are just placeholders. As such, don't be surprised to see some changes when final implementation rolls around. Apparently, the developers are still figuring out how to differentiate Dark Mode from Chrome's Incognito Mode, which, as mentioned, looks practically similar.
Google Chrome Dark Mode Release Date
It's not clear if Dark Mode will be included in the next major Chrome release, which is version 72. Developers are apparently close to finishing this version, however, and might release it come January. Given the early phase of Dark Mode, it might arrive much later.
