14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while that Google was working on a dark theme for Chrome browser on Windows 10, and now it looks like this project advances.
The latest update to the Canary introduces new functionality for the browser, enabling it to detect the Windows 10 settings and automatically adapt.
First discovered by Owen Williams and reported by TechDows, the new feature basically allows Google Chrome to determine what theme Windows 10 uses and then switch without any manual input.
In other words, the browser will respect the OS settings, so if you’re using a dark theme in Windows 10, Google Chrome should automatically enable it as well.
To change visual settings in Windows 10, users need to go to Settings > Personalization > Colors and choose between light and dark.
Work in progress
Needless to say, the dark theme of Google Chrome isn’t yet finalized, so there still are areas that need to be improved. The browser’s menu, for instance, uses a black font on a dark grey background, so it’s nearly impossible to read the available options.
Furthermore, the incognito mode is black as well and it’s pretty difficult to distinguish it from the standard browsing mode.
Google hasn’t yet announced an ETA as to when the dark mode could become available for all users, but this could happen in one of the next stable releases of the browser. The change mentioned here has recently been implemented in the Canary version Google Chrome, so it could take a while before it’s being promoted to the developer and beta builds.
You can give a try to the new black mode in Windows 10 by downloading Google Chrome Canary using the links in this article, but keep in mind this browser isn’t supposed to be your daily driver given it’s nothing more than a testing platform for the application.