Dark Mode Now Available on Google Chrome.. Here’s How to Activate it

Recently, you may have noticed that operating systems, smartphone applications, and computer programs have started to support “Dark Mode”; the latest being Slack and Messenger. Basically, this mode turns system or app elements into black and dark gray colors. This helps reduce eye strain and also preserves battery life (when working on an OLED screen). And now, Google Chrome has joined the group! Instead of relying on themes and extensions that give us the impression of Night Mode in Chrome, it is now official but… only on macOS; while Google promises to bring “Dark Mode” to Chrome users on Windows 10 soon, there is a trick that will allow you to get it now and try it out, so let’s go through it with you in this topic.

Starting with version 73 of Google Chrome, users of Apple macOS can enable Dark Mode through settings, where an option is available that, once activated, turns the browser’s colors entirely into black and dark gray. In fact, there is no difference between it and the browser in Incognito mode as the colors are almost similar. The unique thing here is that this mode also adapts to the operating system, for example, when you activate Dark Mode on Windows 10, Dark Mode in Google Chrome will be automatically activated. However, this mode will also be available on Windows, not now, maybe in the next version. If you can’t wait, follow the steps below to get an idea of how the browser will look.

Before starting anything, make sure to update your Google Chrome browser to version 73 by opening the browser and typing “chrome://settings/help” in the address bar at the top and pressing Enter. This should start downloading and installing the latest available version automatically, and after it finishes, press the “Relaunch” button to close the browser and restart it. Now all you have to do is implement a simple trick to enable Dark Mode in Google Chrome on Windows, where we will modify the Target for the browser shortcut on the desktop. If there isn’t a shortcut, you can create one. The easiest way to do that is to open the Start menu, search for Google Chrome browser, then drag and drop it onto the desktop, as shown in the image above.

Now right-click on this shortcut and select Properties at the bottom of the menu. When the properties window appears on the screen, copy and add the attached code below “chrome.exe” directly inside the Target field. Just like in the attached image:

After finishing, click the OK button at the bottom to save the changes. Then double-click on the shortcut to open the browser and see the new changes.

Well, after opening Google Chrome browser, you should see how Dark Mode looks, with dark colors dominating the browser from the homepage to the new tab marks, settings page, and even dropdown menus with a dark background… But since the mode is still experimental in the Windows version, you will notice some errors in terms of color formatting as shown in the image, where the menu background is dark and the texts are in black rather than white. Anyway, that’s what it is; you have got a glimpse of Dark Mode in Google Chrome. Also, note that this mode is only activated when opening the browser from the shortcut; if you open Google Chrome from the Start menu or taskbar, it will appear in the normal mode without color differences.