Android 11 may finally bring along dark mode scheduling feature

Google started rolling out Android 10 earlier this year with a bunch of new features, including dark mode. The feature allowed users to turn the UI to a darker colour for a better user experience during the night. One key feature that Google skipped in dark mode on Android 10 was dark mode scheduling.

According to a new report by XDA Developers, dark mode scheduling on Android could arrive in the upcoming Android release. Unlike iOS 13, Android 10 users cannot schedule when dark mode needs to be activated on their smartphone.

The feature was previously available in many Android beta releases that allowed users to schedule dark mode based on the time of the day. 

Google decided to hold back on releasing dark mode scheduling in Android 10 due to apps restarting abruptly when dark mode was enabled in the background.

In a Reddit Thread, Google has explained that the feature required apps to request location permissions for accurate sunrise and sunset, which could also have been buggy. Chris Banes from Android Developer Relations at Google said that the calculations can be furthermore difficult for regions close to the north and south poles.

Android features Night Light since Android 7.1 that reduces blue light emitted by the phone’s screen but has a yellowish warm hue. The reason why Google didn’t want to use the similar functionality for dark mode scheduling was the “big chunk of code which we wouldn’t want AppCompat to depend on.”

Dark mode scheduling could be available on future Android releases, most likely on Android 11 as the company might have fixed the bugs, according to a Googler on Google’s Issue Tracker page.