Android

How to Enable Automatic (time-based) Dark Theme in Android 11

Schedule dark theme in Android 11

Automatic Dark Mode is one of the many Android 11 features. Basically, instead of specifying either the light or dark theme, you can enjoy both based on the time. Let’s say you want to keep your phone’s interface light and bright during the day and then when the sun sets, you’d like the phone to switch to dark interface to avoid the strain on your eyes. Android 11 makes it possible by allowing you to schedule the dark mode. Here’s how:

Schedule Dark theme in Android 11

Android 11 gives you 2 ways to set a schedule for the dark theme – sunset to sunrise or custom hours which you can define manually. The phone will automatically switch to dark theme at the start of selected hours and similarly, it will get out of dark theme at the end of the window.

The steps below are applicable for devices on stock Android or other lightweight skins. For example – Nokia, Motorola, Asus, OnePlus, Xiaomi A-series; etc. Other heavily modified OSes may have the setting at a different place.
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Go to Display.
    Settings app in Android 11
  3. Tap on Dark theme option (and not on the toggle switch).
    Display Settings - Android 11
  4. Tap on Schedule and select from:
    • Turns on at custom time. Then specify the start and end time as per your time zone.
    • Turns on from sunset to sunrise.
    • Select “None” if you want to turn off scheduling.

      Schedule Dark Theme in Android 11

That’s it. Android will now do the hard thing automatically so that you get to experience your preferred interface theme based on the time of the day.

To ensure a seamless transition of themes, Android will wait for your screen to go off before it makes changes to the theme. So, if you’re actively using the phone when the dark theme time kicks in, then the phone will postpone the theme change until you turn off the display.

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