What’s your opinion on automatic light/dark mode switching on websites? Don’t you think it would be better to let the user choose the mode manually by clicking?
IMO if a website supports both light & dark themes, it should _by default_ switch automatically. If the site wants to allow overriding that, that's fine, but I hate having to constantly go into the settings of sites to switch it to "Use System Default" instead of "Light theme". Especially when sites don't store the data very long, or it's a site like AzureDevOps/Jira/etc which is deployed across multiple instances and therefore has a setting per-instance.
Depending on the device I'm using and where I am, I either let my computer automatically switch based on time of day, or keep it on dark theme. Sites that have manual toggles that don't default to respecting system settings make automatic system-wide dark/light mode an absolute pain.
To add the counter: A website shold always have a manual control and not try to guess my timezone or preferences based around that. Since I typically use a device in well lit conditions and detest dark mode as it is, not having a manual switch for when things go wrong kicks off a bad experience.
To clarify, I was referring to it just respecting the OS's day/night cycle settings. I definitely agree a website shouldn't be trying to do anything fancy like that, I was just saying that websites by default should respect whatever the OS/browser is listing as the preference
I strongly believe it should be the default everywhere.
IMO, you can even skip having a theme switch—that's how native stock OS apps behave (calculator, notepad, settings, etc.).
For websites, I think that should be enough. For web apps however, you might want more control over the theme somewhere in the settings page, as people are more likely to spend a lot of time in your app and may want to customize it a bit more.
Sometimes when I'm browsing at night, and have the OS/browser set to dark mode, it's really annoying when one website suddenly defaults to light mode instead of respecting my settings. The only thing more annoying is to have to do this repeatedly for multiple websites. In fact, when I'm working/browsing at night (without the lights) I enable an extension which will forcibly render all pages in dark mode, using some pre-specified heuristics to convert colors.
Tbh, the preference may work for one set of things but not for the other. It should be a per-app per-site setting with a system default. But not in-the-site, obviously.
This is not a realistic change though, cause systems and browsers vendors are absolutely deaf to this and don’t let users choose. In contrast to Dark Reader extension, which does the thing for all sites, light and dark.
I don't think I phrased this well, I agree. Things should follow what the system reports, but still permit switching should things not be suitable for whatever reason
I like the feature if it can be switched off. Having the site auto adjust based on the system settings is great, but I really dislike any system that tries to enforce certain options on me with no way to change them.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 68.6 ms ] threadDepending on the device I'm using and where I am, I either let my computer automatically switch based on time of day, or keep it on dark theme. Sites that have manual toggles that don't default to respecting system settings make automatic system-wide dark/light mode an absolute pain.
It’s particularly useful at night when you navigate to a website that blinding you with white for no reason.
If it is a site that already existed, do not make it automatically switch. Consider adding the option to switch instead.
If you insist nevertheless, then the ability to select the color scheme explicitly is absolutely mandatory.
IMO, you can even skip having a theme switch—that's how native stock OS apps behave (calculator, notepad, settings, etc.).
For websites, I think that should be enough. For web apps however, you might want more control over the theme somewhere in the settings page, as people are more likely to spend a lot of time in your app and may want to customize it a bit more.
This is not a realistic change though, cause systems and browsers vendors are absolutely deaf to this and don’t let users choose. In contrast to Dark Reader extension, which does the thing for all sites, light and dark.
- Clicking the button switches between manual light and dark modes.
- Double-clicking resets it to "auto" mode.
that being said the OS just switched to dark here because time of day and HN is still a nice bright white light at the end of the tunnel.