Sooner or later, every app and website in existence is going to have a dark mode. Joining the long list this week is Google Search pages on desktop, which now have a dark mode of their own.
Technically, Google calls it “Dark theme,” but the function is the exact same. When you turn it on, the background of Google.com goes dark, while the text turns white. If you’re one to stumble over to your computer in the middle of the night and are sick of being blinded by the stark white brightness of the Google Search website on your display, the new dark mode could be a lifesaver.
Google says the feature is “fully rolling out over the next few weeks,” so don’t panic if you can’t find it. I actually received a notification from Google when I searched for something this Tuesday alerting me to the new feature. Presumably, this notification will pop up for everyone as the feature reaches their accounts. You can even turn on the Dark theme from the pop-up when it appears.
How to turn on Google Search dark mode on desktop
If you want to activate dark mode on Google Search, here are the steps from Google’s support site:
- At the top right of a Google Search page, click Settings > Search settings.
- On the left, click Appearance.
- Choose Device default, Dark theme, or Light theme.
- Device default: Automatically match the color scheme of your current device
- Dark theme: Light text on a dark background
- Light theme: Dark text on a light background
- At the bottom, click Save.
If that’s too many steps for you, there’s also a shortcut at the bottom of the Settings menu. It should say “Dark theme: Off,” and when you click it, the page will immediately change to dark mode. If you check the Settings menu again, it will now say “Dark mode: On.”
Google says this has long been one of its most requested features. In the coming weeks, everyone with a computer will be able to give their eyes a break by using the dark theme on Google’s website. Google says that feature applies to the Google homepage, search results page, Search settings, and more. A similar dark theme is also coming to the mobile site in the future as well, but Google has yet to say when we can expect the feature to roll out on phones and tablets.
