Skip to main content

Twitter to impose dark mode as it’s ‘better in every way,’ Elon Musk says

If you tend to use Twitter in light mode, then prepare for things to change.

The microblogging platform, which is in the process of rebranding to “X” under the orders of new owner Elon Musk, looks set to ditch light mode, leaving you with only one: dark.

Recommended Videos

In a tweet on Thursday, Musk, who acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion, said the platform will soon offer dark mode only as it is “better in every way.”

Elon's Musk's tweet suggesting Twitter, or X, will soon only have a dark mode.
Twitter

At the current time, Twitter lets you choose from three display settings: light, dim, or the very dark “lights out.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

You also have the option to link the display to your phone’s settings so that the app switches between light and dark modes according to preset timings.

But according to Musk, that’s set to change.

He didn’t say when the dark-mode-only redesign will come into effect, so it could happen tomorrow. Or possibly next year. You never really know with Elon Musk.

One user also tweeted an image of the platform’s current verification mark — a white checkmark inside a blue cloud — alongside a possible future alternative showing a white checkmark inside a black cloud. But as was pointed out, that might not look so great if the background is also black.

Regardless of aesthetics, dark mode is a better option for night reading, reducing the strain on the eyes compared to a bright white screen. It may also help to save some battery power.

It’d be an odd move to remove a display option, after all, surely you’d want your users to be able to set it up in a way that’s most comfortable for them. But then, this is now Musk’s Twitter (or X), so pretty much anything goes.

Indeed, future changes to the app are expected to be far more profound than the loss of light mode as Musk wants to transform X into a so-called “super-app” offering a range of services — think messaging, banking, payments, meal delivery, ridesharing, shopping, and so on — similar to China’s WeChat.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Twitter’s head of trust and safety resigns
A stylized composite of the Twitter logo.

Twitter’s Ella Irwin has resigned as the company’s head of trust and safety, confirming her departure to Reuters on Thursday.

Irwin stepped into the role following the departure of Yoel Roth in November, shortly after Elon Musk acquired the business for $44 billion.

Read more
Twitter ‘melts’ as it becomes first social app to launch a presidential bid
A stylized composite of the Twitter logo.

Elon Musk’s plan to make Twitter the first social media platform to host the launch of a U.S. presidential bid didn’t get off to the best start.

The idea was to launch a Twitter Spaces session with Republican hopeful Ron DeSantis at a scheduled time on Wednesday evening, but when the event was supposed to start, the online audience waiting patiently in the audio-only Space was met with a sudden screeching sound.

Read more
Elon Musk says if his tweets lose his firms money, then so be it
A digital image of Elon Musk in front of a stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating.

Elon Musk spoke to CNBC’s David Faber in a wide-ranging interview that was shared by the media outlet on Tuesday, May 16.

Toward the end of the lengthy exchange, Faber asked Musk why he bothers tweeting stuff to his 140 million followers that he knows will be controversial -- the most recent of which he posted on Monday accusing the billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros of hating humanity and comparing him to Magneto, Marvel’s Jewish supervillain from the X-Men series -- especially as such opinions have the potential to impact the three companies that he leads: Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX.

Read more