Few things are as delightfully divisive as Android’s dark mode.

Some phones now ship with Android’s darker-style interface activated by default. Most reasonably recent devices offer it as a swift ‘n’ simple toggle. And most people, in my experience, have amusingly strong preferences about which approach they prefer — the standard Android “light” mode, in which screens tend to be bright and with shades of white as a foundation, and the dark mode (a.k.a. “dark theme”), where black and dark gray dominate and everything is much more muted and muddy.

It really is a night and day difference, so to speak — but no matter where you fall on the light vs. dark preference spectrum, it’s well worth your while to noddle over two pertinent points:

1. Android’s dark mode doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision. With the right setup, you can use it as a dynamically activated sometimes switch that enables itself automatically based on different variables and gives you a darker, less glary motif when conditions call for it while leaving you with the lighter, brighter look the rest of the time.
2. Regardless of how often you’re using dark mode, a few easy adjustments will make it meaningfully more complete and effective as an end-to-end interface style for whatever you’re doing on your device.

It occurred to me recently that we’ve gone over several smart Android dark mode enhancements over the past weeks and months — and that, put together into a single power-pack bundle, these small-seeming items can add up to create a pretty dramatic difference in your Android-using experience, whether you’re a full-fledged dark mode convert or a more light-preferring vampire skeptic.

Here, specifically, are five easy ways to make Android’s dark mode meaningfully better for you.

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Android dark mode power-up #1: The app expansion

Up first is a feature that arose as part of our Android 17 discussion and sparked the entire idea for this collection — and that’s the one-tap switch in the latest Android version that forces every app on your phone to follow your dark mode preference, whether the program technically supports such a setting or not.

In Android 17, finding and flipping that switch will make every app turn dark whenever the system-wide dark mode is active. It eliminates the irksome exceptions that’ve traditionally stayed stubbornly light (due to developer laziness) even when your dark theme is on.

If you’ve got Android 17 on your phone already, it couldn’t be much easier to make it happen. Just look in the Display section of your system settings, tap the words “Dark theme,” then change the setting that shows up next from “Standard” to “Expanded.”

No Android 17? No problem: On devices with reasonably recent pre-Android-17 system software, you can actually find a switch buried deep in some developer settings that’ll let you enable the exact same option without any waiting.

Follow these instructions and enjoy your new universally consistent darkened dynamic.

Android dark mode power-up #2: A darkened web

That first trick fixes the issue of certain apps not following your dark mode preference — but what about the web? Most of us spend a fair amount of time in our browsers these days, and most websites won’t follow a dark mode setting and adjust their interfaces accordingly.

They absotively can, though. With the flip of a single switch buried within your browser’s bowels, you can force every website into a darkened motif whenever your system-level dark mode is up and running.

See?

Here’s the secret:

• Open up Chrome on whatever Android device you’re using. (And note that this will also work with any Chromium-based Chrome alternative, like Brave, Edge, or Vivaldi.)
• Type chrome:flags into the address bar.
• Type darken into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up next.
• See the line labeled “Darken websites checkbox in themes setting”? Tap the “Default” box beneath it, and change its setting to “Enabled.”
• Tap the blue “Relaunch” button at the bottom of the screen.

Now, when Chrome comes back a second or so later…

• Tap the three-dot menu icon in its upper-right corner.
• Tap “Settings” in the next menu.
• Scroll down until you see “Appearance.” Tap it, then tap “Theme.”
• Make sure the newly added box for “Apply dark theme to sites, when possible” — which we just magically made appear via our last little modification — is checked and active.

And that’s it: From that moment onward, whenever your Android device is switched into its dark mode, any website you’re viewing within Chrome will automatically follow suit. Nothing more to it, and no further thought or action ever required on your part.

Not bad, eh?!

Android dark mode power-up #3: A dark mode schedule

Even as someone who isn’t into dark mode as a 24/7 sort of thing, I can definitely appreciate the presence of a dimmer, less glary look on my device in certain specific scenarios.

It’s incredibly easy to overlook or forget, but Google’s actually got a way to handle that for you. In fact, it’s been built into Android itself since 2020’s Android 11 release.

Just look in the Display section of your system settings and tap the line for either “Dark theme” or “Dark mode settings.” If you see a toggle alongside that line, make sure you’re tapping the actual words next to it — not the toggle itself.

Then look for the option to create a schedule.

You can create a time-based rule for when your device’s dark mode turns on and back off again, or — more intelligent yet — you can set it to automatically activate at sunset, wherever you are at any given moment, and then turn itself back off and switch you back over to light mode at sunrise.

You can also integrate dark mode into Android’s rarely noticed Bedtime Mode so that the screen getting dimmer is part of your pre-sleep winddown routine, if you really wanna get wild.

Or — ahem…

Android dark mode power-up #4: Contextual dark mode

A dark mode schedule is pretty forkin’ sensible. But the reality is that even with a time-based setup or a sunset-driven activation approach, you’ll still be using your phone in bright rooms with dark mode active and vice-versa.

And if you want Android’s dark theme present only when you’re actually in a dark room — as makes the most sense in my mind — there’s an even more intelligent option.

It comes our way via a handy little free app called Adaptive Theme. That app does one thing and only thing only: It automatically adjusts your device’s dark mode setting based on the actual ambient light around you, using your phone’s sensors rather than an arbitrary time or a not-always-relevant sunset status as a guide. It makes so much sense, you’ll find yourself wondering why your phone didn’t just work that way from the get-go.

The app does unavoidably have a slightly complex one-time setup, which I outline step-by-step here. It’s perfectly safe to do, though, and it shouldn’t take you more than a couple minutes to pull off.

And once you’ve done that, your Android dark mode will just work for you — flipping on when the lighting around you is dim (to your exact specifications) and flipping back off when you’re in brighter surroundings.

Yes, please — and thank you. Last but not least…

Android dark mode power-up #5: The wallpaper wizard

Superficial as it may seem, the one piece of the puzzle we haven’t yet addressed — that isn’t ordinarily affected by Android’s dark mode setting — is your home screen wallpaper.

By default, whatever wallpaper you set at the system level stays the same even as your interface moves between its dark and light states — and when you’re anglin’ for a dimmer, less glary look in dark environments, that can be pretty darn jarring.

An app called, rather aptly, Dark/Light Wallpaper Scheduler is the answer you never knew you needed. It’s pretty self-explanatory — you tell it which wallpaper you want when your phone is in dark mode and light mode, then it automatically switches ’em out for you based on that status — but I wrote about it in detail here, if you’re interested in reading more about how exactly it works and how you can make the most of it.

And with that, my fellow Android-appreciating animal, your dark mode power-pack is complete. Now, would someone please turn off the lights? I don’t know about you, but all this talk of darkness has me hankering for a nap.

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Over the past decade, there’s something I’ve hinted at, mentioned in passing as a part of broader discussions, and told more people than I can count privately via email and other one-on-one conversations.

And now, as the writer of the internet’s longest-standing Android column and newsletter — a fancy way of saying someone who is apparently now old as molasses — I feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t just come out and say it as prominently and plainly as possible:

There is no valid reason anyone should be buying Motorola Android devices in 2026. None.

It’s a shame, too, ’cause Motorola has a heck of a history within Android and the mobile realm in general. And, to its credit, the company does still make some impressive-looking and at times quite interesting hardware.

But the compromises that come with that package are just too serious and consequential to be forgiven. That’s been the case for some time now, truth be told — but with yet another facepalm-inducing infraction being added onto the list now, it’s time to say it loud and clear:

Please stop buying Motorola Android phones. And please join me in telling everyone you know the same thing. 

Trust me: You’ll be doing them a major favor. And here, with no punches pulled and absolutely no sugarcoating, is exactly why.

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The Motorola Android compromise: Part I

I won’t beat around the bush: The most pressing reason Motorola Android phones are completely inadvisable to buy is the reason that’s been present for the longest — and that’s the company’s complete and utter disregard for even minimally acceptable post-sales software support.

It’s something I’ve noted in my data-based Android Upgrade Report Cards for more years than I can even remember at this point, and it’s almost comically consistent: Year after year, upgrade cycle after upgrade cycle, Motorola simply does not give a damn about investing the time or the money to bring current Android versions to its existing customers in anything close to a timely manner. Once you’ve forked over your phone and put away your wallet, good luck: You’ll be lucky if you get a single software update from Motorola after that, half a year to a year after the fact — and you almost certainly won’t hear a single peep from the company about the progress (or lack thereof) at any point along the way.

Motorola has managed to score an almost impressive number of back-to-back “F” scores on my annual analyses; no other Android device maker even comes close to that record. And lest you think this is purely about pokiness in providing polish and surface-level progress, remember that practically every Android software update is packed with critically important changes around privacy, security, and performance — and the way apps are able to interact with both your data and your hardware.

Running outdated software isn’t just dangerous — it’s downright irresponsible, especially if you’re a professional using your phone for business purposes but even if you’re just a regular ol’ schmoe focused purely on personal stuff. No one who understands a thing about security would ever recommend that, and that’s exactly what you’re signing up for anytime you buy a Motorola-made device.

So that’s part one, and that’s the biggest problem with Motorola’s Android products. But it isn’t the end of this tale nor the reason I was finally moved to write this missive, with the hopes that it’d eventually reach any Android-interested phone-buyers with Motorola on their minds.

Motorola’s more recent Android offenses

All update-related issues aside, the problem with Motorola’s Android products is that they make all sorts of compromises that are all about lining Motorola’s pockets at the expense of your experience.

The most recent example and the straw that broke the Android columnist’s (increasingly creaky) back is the new discovery that Motorola had seemingly been indirectly hijacking the Amazon app on its devices and sneakily injecting an affiliate code into links. The end result of such actions, according to observations published this week, is generating unearned revenue from your day-to-day purchases.

That’s an underhanded and shady-seeming practice, to say the very least. It just feels icky and ethically reckless. And clearly, what was demonstrated was intended to go unnoticed, which is always a pretty apparent sign in my mind that someone’s doing something shifty.

Following the discovery and subsequent outcry, Moto released a statement saying that the behavior was “unintended” and the result of its partnership with a company called Device Native. According to Moto, it had teamed up with that organization to develop “an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher.” You can choose to interpret that how you will, but the reality is that Device Native is a company that exists to inject personalized, native-seeming ads directly into the core Android software experience, as its website plainly establishes — with “no user opt-in required,” allowing for easier “scale” of “monetization globally.”

On some level, at least, Motorola evidently decided to work with this company and integrate its ad technology into the Android experience on its phones. Regardless of whether the Amazon code injection was truly deliberate, which organization caused it to happen, and who was or wasn’t aware of the actions, Motorola opted to place this ad-serving system into the phones it was selling and to allow the company behind it to exert this kind of control over its customers’ experiences — as well as, one would imagine, likely leaning on it for other forms of invasive system-level ad integration.

And sure, maybe Moto will back down from this practice and perhaps even distance itself from the partnership entirely if the outrage grows loud enough. But does someone stopping a shady-seeming practice simply because they got caught and people complained make for the kind of company you want to trust in general?

It’s similar to the way Moto lards up its devices with so much preinstalled bloatware that you actually have to fight to get through it or — Goog forbid — remove it and reclaim the product you paid hundreds of dollars to purchase. Heck, even the company’s top-of-the-line, nearly $2,000 folding Razr Fold phone is guilty of this sin, and that’s just embarrassing for a device of that price and caliber.

Even with Motorola’s lower-level phones, though, we’re talking about devices that often cost $500 or close to that. These aren’t bottom-of-the-barrel, heavily subsidized garbage gadgets. You could get one of Google’s Pixel 10a phones for that same price or often even less — without any of the bloatware, the link-hijacking and potential ad-injecting shenanigans, or the unforgivable software support failures. You’d get a full seven years of guaranteed timely and reliable software updates, from major Android versions to monthly security patches and the quarterly feature drops that accompany those. And that’s to say nothing of the superior camera experience and other assorted advantages.

You could go with one of Samsung’s midrange models, too, imperfect as those are in their own ways, and it’d still be a massive step up from the Motorola madness.

We’ve reached a point where there really is just no comparison — and, again, no reason why anyone should be buying a Motorola phone anymore. The issue, unfortunately, is that most of the people who are buying Moto devices are the same people who aren’t reading columns like these. They’re the people who waltz into a carrier store, see whatever model is featured on the shelf or pushed by a commission-earning, partnership-promoting salesperson, and walk out with whatever caught their eye or had the best promotional pricing on that particular day.

Make no mistake about it: These types of devices give Android a bad name and propagate the myth of the entire platform being a second-rate dumping ground for “folks who can’t afford iPhones.” Android is so much more and so much better than that. You deserve so much better than that.

Plain and simple, this isn’t the Motorola of yesterday. At this point, there’s no excuse — and no reason to keep setting yourself up for failure when so many better options exist.

Say goodbye, Moto. And make sure everyone you know who won’t be reading this column knows why they should do the same.

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