Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Photos on desktop is finally rolling out a dark mode option.
- Users can enable it by going to settings and selecting Dark mode under the new Appearance menu.
- The feature is rolling out gradually, so not all Google accounts might have access to it yet.
Google is finally adding some much-requested features to Google Photos. Just yesterday, the company confirmed that it’s rolling out an option to flip images within the built-in editor. Now, it has introduced another long-overdue feature — dark mode for the desktop version of Google Photos.
9to5Google spotted a banner in the top-right corner of the Google Photos website announcing the update: “Dark mode is here! You can now apply a dark theme to Photos.” However, I didn’t see the banner on my profile, though I was still able to find the option within settings.
If you want to check for yourself, tap the settings gear icon and look for the new “Appearance” menu under the backup quality options. There, you’ll find three choices: Light, Dark, or Use device default.
The dark mode background isn’t completely black — more of a gray shade — but it still makes the interface much easier on the eyes. I’ve been living on dark-mode apps for years now, so this feels like a much-needed change. It also helps balance out the rest of the website’s design, as the image viewer window in Google Photos, which uses a jet-black background, now merges better into the rest of the website.
That said, it looks like Google is rolling out the feature gradually. Out of the four Google accounts I tested, only one had the appearance toggle available. This staggered rollout is nothing new for Google, so if you don’t see the option yet, it’s likely just a matter of time.
