Android P Dark And Light Theme To Get A Manual Toggle

Before you get too excited, let's make this clear: Android P isn't getting a new dark system theme. Actually, Android Oreo already had that to some extent, limited only to a few pieces of the Android UI. But in Google's wisdom, it thought users would love just how automated switching between light and dark was. Fortunately, Google has seen the light, pardon the pun, and will be giving users the ability to choose which side they're on.

Dark system themes are one of those much-requested features that almost never happen. It's a small change that is appreciated by many. Google added one a while back but limited it to the quick settings drop down and the launcher. Probably because Google presumed those would be the most viewed screens, next to the home screen that is.

The problem was that Google, being a fan of automating everything, didn't exactly give users control over that. The theme would change automatically depending on your wallpaper. Dark wallpaper means a dark theme. Light to light. What that meant is that you can't have your favorite colorfully bright photo and a dark theme, too.

Fortunately, Google has been moved by a report in the Android issue tracker. That issue is now marked as fixed with an explanation that users can simply go to Settings -> Display -> Device Theme to select between dark and light. That's pretty much it.

Hopefully that implies an option to turn of the automatic theme change based on the wallpaper. But more importantly, that hopefully signals that Google is going to take dark themes less lightly.