Dark mode is a useful feature for many people and is included in a lot of apps. Some people like it because it can help to reduce the glare of a bright screen when it’s being used in the dark. Many users with OLED or AMOLED screens also like dark modes because they reduce the power draw of the screen, increasing battery life.
Tip: In a traditional LCD screen, the pixels that give the screen its colours are illuminated by a backlight. The backlight is constantly shining, even when the screen is trying to display a black image. This means the screen can’t accurately display black, or other dark colours, it also means it’s drawing power constantly. In comparison, OLED and AMOLED screens produce light directly from their pixels and don’t require a backlight. This means that when a black or dark image is being displayed, the pixels can be turned off, allowing for more accurate blacks and significantly reducing the power usage.
In the Google Files app, you can enable a dark mode. In some phones and system versions, you may be able to manually enable dark mode. In our testing, however, this option was not present, and the app only uses the system theme.
To manually enable dark mode, tap the burger menu icon in the top-left corner, then tap “Settings”. Once in the settings, dark mode should be the third from the bottom option, at the top of the “Other Settings” sub-heading. If this option is present, simply toggle the slider to enable dark mode.
Tip: If the technique described above doesn’t work for you, try changing your system-wide theme to dark mode. In our testing, with a Samsung Galaxy S10e, the app matched the system theme. As of the time of writing, in August 2020, the in-app help topics refer to the presence of a dark mode option being available, so you may not have the same issue as us.
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