Facebook Dark Mode For Android Is Only A Distraction
So you're all excited about getting Dark Mode for every app in your phone, right? Today we got to see the first major change for Facebook, the Android version of the app for the social network. Meanwhile Facebook's continuing to deal with the fallout from the biggest-fine-ever for a tech company levied by the FTC. FUN FACT: After news of the FTC fine amount of $5-billion for Facebook was revealed, Facebook's stock price shot upward. That's right, UPWARD.*
The first code spotting of Facebook's dark mode came from Jang M Wong, aka @wongmjane, who reminds us that the Facebook app has been notoriously BRIGHT since inception. You want a flashlight and don't have a button for your backside LED flash? Just open the Facebook app!
*Facebook knew they were going to be fined for several billion dollars (basically a slap on the wrist for the social network) so they offhand made a note of it in their then-most-recent quarterly earnings call – they earmarked it. No big deal! This is how Facebook was fined by the FTC for privacy violations for a sum of a cool $5-BILLION USD.
But lo! And behold! Wong took a peek at the code for the latest early release of the Facebook app for Android and found the darkness! If what she's pointing out here is what Facebook's readied thus far, they're... not quite there just yet. Not there in the sense that they really haven't accounted for all the elements that are dark that should be light when the otherwise light elements go dark – like the word "Groups" here.
Facebook is working on Dark Mode for mobile
I wrote a blog about this: https://t.co/X5tAZuIlPz
Tip @Techmeme pic.twitter.com/w3vYpRgxUY
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 12, 2019
Meanwhile a new version of the code-reading community tool F-Secure Data Discovery Portal was released recently. There you'll be able to see what Facebook has going on below the surface – further down than the code for the app. In the portal's latest update they've got Google, Twitter, Amazon, Snapchat, and Apple data in the mix, too.
Oh also, if you missed it, Facebook just cut off Facebook info access to Microsoft and Sony. The Xbox and the PlayStation ecosystems will no longer have access to Facebook systems through the means through which data was left accessible FOR YEARS. Have a peek there – at least Facebook has the decency to blame themselves for the mistake. Not like that time in July when their Facebook Messenger Kids app let strangers talk to kids.