It has been seen already that YouTube night mode or what you may term dark mode, depending on what angle you are coming from, is also instrumental in saving device battery life as well as giving the application a more cinematic feel. In addition, the dark mode also helps reduce the amount of glare when you are watching videos on YouTube and also allows viewers to be comparatively be drawn in on the true colors of the videos as they view them. This comes as dark mode capabilities continue to become increasingly popular and even common on various operating systems and applications even though there are no documented benefits as of this time. Furthermore, by using dark mode, one can go ahead to notice a reduction in issues of eye strain issues, reduction in health issues., much better sleep and longer lasting device battery. As a matter of fact, YouTube night mode from the application itself has gone on and made it one of the latest high-profile applications to go ahead and offer its users the option of a dark mode after a lot of other similar applications had already done so. Twitter, its clients – Twitterific 5 and Tweetbot 4, Reddit and its clients – Apollo, Beam and Narwhal, Overcast the podcast player, Fantastical 2 the calendar application, Telegram X, Pocket, Instapaper, Feedly and a whole lot more applications had taken the leap before now.
With software and application updates being introduced on a second by second basis, the introduction of the dark mode has also become the in thing, as we can see from the number of high-profile applications who have made the journey to the other side. This extra feature essentially inverts the screen, that is if you are yet to see it or even use it. It basically works to turn a traditionally white screen into a dark blue one while the text become white.
As it is, it does seem like every other application and operating system is racing against time to ensure they launch the dark mode features for their users. Microsoft Outlook, YouTube, Slack, Gmail and Reddit (as mentioned before) have all gone ahead to recently add the feature with the relatively new operating systems such as Android Pie and MacOS Mojave are transiting towards installing same and rolling it out for its users. Even game console operating systems such as the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One S (X) and anything else with a color display has gone ahead to adopt this feature.
The hype surrounding its release also continues to build, even though it is but just a simple toggle that basically allows you to switch the color of any application window to black. Some people actually enjoy the dark mode feature as it does offer a different outlook which seems a bit customized in comparison to the default design. Others just find it a lot easier for their eyes to adjust to, most especially when they are making use of the application at night or in a dark room, others even for more aesthetic reasons. In fact, the word right now is that with users requesting, chances are high that there will be the appearance of a dark mode feature in the application within a limited space of time from the requests.
If you then keep wondering and do not see anything in these reasons, you may just keep asking what is making everyone switch to the dark side? It does look like there are quite a few benefits to running an operation on dark mode. Why would your favorite YouTube have the YouTube night mode feature?
Device battery life is saved and lasts longer
Enough has been said about this already but hell, we would speak to it a bit more. Apart from yielding this benefit, especially with devices that have OLED screen, the claim remains that a black screen does use way lesser power than when one is using a white screen to display. If you operate your Windows device in dark mode, you can end up saving battery life. For example, a device that uses an AMOLED display, its black pixels remain off and not illuminated, it could use the hex black most of if not throughout the dark mode period. There are reports of screens that do not use hex black, and then the screen essentially goes ahead to be typically illuminated and then continue draining power if on an AMOLED screen. If an application is run on hex black, there is also a tradeoff as you get better battery life while sacrificing smooth scrolling and swift movements while going through your phone. On the flip side, things just might go ahead to look more jittery and in fact, pixelated.
Users are able to get better sleep
Users of bright screens are prone to disruption of their natural sleep cycles medical research has indeed shown. Artificial light helps to dampen neurons that induce sleep and then trigger the neurons that help you wake up. Essentially, the body’s sleep hormones are suppressed, and the natural clock gets distorted or pushed back, with melatonin. When you lose a few hours of shut-eye, it may not be a big deal initially but at the end it all adds up. Losing sleep for a long term could essentially raise risk of obesity, depression and heart diseases. Children also tend to act hyper instead of being tired and this could be mistaken for ADHD. A dark mode could help with less disruption to your circadian rhythms as duly required.
Reduction in eye fatigue
Since the transition of computers into the mainstream, the concern for eye strain issues has continued to rise as we have now become more accustomed to looking at screens for much longer periods. Categorically speaking, research has shown that the time we spend looking at screens has continued to increase over the last 20 years, going from 9 hours a week on the average for an American to 24 hours a week on the average. All this time spent looking on the computer is prone to causing serious eye side effects with a potential issue being the damage to eye growth. This is a major cause of shortsightedness or what is medically referred to as myopia.
Running applications is dark mode can help reduce some of the fatigue. This is because paragraphs and sentences are way easier to read on a tinted gray background or even on a black background populated with gray text. This is due to the fact that white is able to reflect all light wavelengths while also stimulating the three types of visual receptors within the human eye. Users with low vision problems as well as color-blindness can also be assisted by using dark mode.
Medical conditions improved from use
This is no joke and has been proven over some time. The fact is that with dark mode, users who have certain health conditions which are aggravated by bright lights are able to get some respite. People who do suffer from photophobia, which is a condition that makes people sensitive to light, can be much more comfortable when a blue light filter is activated on smartphones or the dark mode option is used. When the dark mode feature is activated, it is also able to help people who suffer from issues with migraines.
