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WWDC 2019 – Apple hints at Dark Mode in iOS 13

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is a yearly event and an important place for app developers to get the lowdown on upcoming features and technologies. More than that, though, it’s a platform for Apple to publicly announce software updates, new hardware, and to showcase the best apps of the past year.

This year’s event has been officially announced and will take place from June 3 – 7 in San Jose. That’s when we’ll get a first glimpse at iOS 13, expected to release alongside this year’s new iPhones in September 2019. The design of the WWDC announcement site strongly implies we’ll finally see Dark Mode included in this year’s software update.

These WWDC graphics could point to a big reveal in June…

A universal Dark Mode for iOS has been on users’ wish lists for years now –in fact, we half-expected it to be announced at WWDC way back before iOS 10 was a thing. But the dark theming of this year’s WWDC promotional material seems like a pretty strong hint that this will be the year. Apple knows how much people want to see it, and surely wouldn’t pull off this kind of tease only to let people down in a few months.

In theory, Dark Mode would be a universal way to switch the display colors in iOS to white on black instead of the other way around, creating a scheme that is much easier on the eyes at night. The mode already exists in MacOS after being added last year, and so it’s surely only a matter of time until iOS follows suit.

Dark Mode on a MacBook

In the meantime, there are plenty of good apps with their own Dark Mode settings – and Smart Invert can be used as a workaround to fake a kind of Dark Mode for everything else, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Roll on iOS 13!