Using a screen late at night can be bad for your eyes, and bad for your sleep patterns; it has become increasingly popular for software companies, therefore, to introduce alternative (usually darker and warmer) nighttime colour schemes for their interfaces in order to make things more comfortable for users.
Apple has a well-known Dark Mode that aims to help with these problems, but the interesting thing is that officially, it is only available on the Apple TV. The iPhone has Invert Colour and Night Shift; the Mac has ‘dark menu bar’ mode; but only the Apple TV has the full feature. In this article we briefly explain how it works, and how to switch it on.
What is Dark Mode?
Dark Mode for tvOS replaces the white Apple TV interface, with a darker option. It is only available for fourth-generation Apple TVs (with the TV app store) and later.
Dark Mode arrived on the Apple TV as part of tvOS 10. The difference is much more noticeable on tvOS than onmacOS, which as previously mentioned only has a narrower version of the feature we call ‘dark menu bar’ mode.
How to use Dark Mode on Apple TV
Here’s how to switch on Dark Mode in tvOS.
- Click Settings.
- Choose Appearance.
- Select Dark.
You’ll notice that the interface changes at once; the background changes from mid grey to black, and the text from black to white.
Author: David Price, Editor
David has loved the iPhone since covering the original 2007 launch; later his obsession expanded to include iPad and Apple Watch. He offers advice to owners (and prospective owners) of these devices.