Those of you who love to argue about the supremacy of iPhone over Android (and vice versa) will have a field day with this one. iPhone users finally got a taste of WhatsApp’s dark mode last week and it turns out not only is the dark mode on iPhone different from the one on Android, it’s arguably better than what we Android users got.
How?
Let’s start by looking at the two images below:
Dark mode on iOS has a pitch-black background The android alternative has more of a dark green background
The dark modes look different, with the iPhone version looking darker than the Android version – and this will impact the experience.
The true-black version that we see on iOS is OLED friendly which means for users who have OLED smartphones (iPhone X, XS, XS Max) get to save battery whilst the Android phones with OLED display won’t save battery since their WhatsApp dark mode isn’t truly black but actually a green/grey tint.
The true-black you get on iPhones uses less battery because OLED display individually turns off every pixel with the black background and thus save more battery life.
Whilst it’s hard to compare just how much of an impact this will have is hard to measure considering that these are two different operating systems but I’m sure having the darker option would be a welcome option for many Android users who want to save on their battery just like iPhone users.
3 comments
Ahh – i call you out on these Lies –
It’s not an iPhone thing. It’s OLED screen thing. Samsung and other enjoy the same benefit. Remember that Apple buys screens from Samsung. https://www.ifixit.com/News/16952/does-dark-mode-really-save-battery-on-your-phone
Yes but while Samsung (and many other) users have AMOLED screens the Android version of WhatsApp (from Facebook) uses a grey/green colour which in addition to being really ugly doesn’t take advantage of the AMOLED screen. Especially disappointing because Instagram from Facebook does have a pure black dark mode. It’s beyond stupid.