A. Lee Bennett Jr.
John GruberOn your phone, do you use:
Light mode
Dark mode
Switch by time of day
Switch willy-nilly
Poll ended at .
eabolden
Dylan@gruber I am not a good person to answer this question because my Home Screen looks like this:
Aaron 
@Aaron very nice! I have been meaning to write up an article about "how" and also "why" I've done this. but basically I have been annoyed at the stupid muscle-memory habit to mindlessly pull out my phone, so I stripped it of as much extraneous use as possible.
George Liquor, American
@liquor_american @Aaron The Light Phone III is actually what made me do this to my phone. the issue with these devices is that I still want decent navigation, a good camera, the ability to order an uber, scan QR codes, etc. I settled on this as means for enjoying the actual utility of a fully featured phone, while minimizing the ability for it to suck me in for needless attention sucking.
AC
černý kočky nemňoukaj'@gruber i would like to use automatic switch, but sunset-sunrise is completely useless. there is light for light mode two hours after sunset. if the phone can do something like “five minute average of ambient brightness,” that would be cool
Sumocat 🐈⬛@cerny_kocky @gruber You can tailor the timing with automations in Shortcuts. I have mine set to switch to Dark Mode an hour after sunset and to switch to Light Mode after I stop my morning alarm.
petes_bread_eqn_xls@gruber Generally I let iOS switch to dark mode at sunset, but there’s always that period—between when the sun dips behind the Rockies and when it’s officially sunset—where the phone is annoyingly still on day colors and brightness.
ben
kcǃ
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧@gruber I know light mode is supposed to be better for your eyes during the day, but I find dark mode so much easier to read
Simon B. Støvring@gruber I’m “Switch by time of day but also willy-nilly when time of day doesn’t cut it”
Jonas Salling@simonbs same! Something with the nordic summer light.
Dean Mayers
Jack Minehan@gruber I’ve always used dark mode oh my phone since iOS 13(?) but have been wanting to switch it to time of day
superfunc@gruber willy nilly crowd checking in
Seinfeld Clip - The Trip, Part 1: Morning Mist
@superfunc Perfect.
Simon Harper@gruber today is a bit more than just dark/light mode. I use light mode but my Home Screen is dark icons and dark mode for wallpaper. So a mix.
Thomas Reed@gruber I’ve seen credible research indicating that dark mode actually reduces reading comprehension, though I wonder if that’s still true with the increasing prevalence of dark mode. Still, I personally find I can see things much better in light mode.
zıəs uɐɟəʇs ✪@gruber I voted for "Switch by time of day" plus some apps (like Ivory) are always set to dark mode (if they offer such a setting)
Viola
aardvark
deBaer
Andy
Mikołaj Hołysz@gruber Voice Over :)
Matt Birchler@gruber Sunrise-to-sunset is all that makes sense to me.
Glenn Brown@gruber Dark Mode only I have tried Light Mode and always feel like my eyes are being bombarded by too much white. Tried reduce white point and didn't help much.
powerLuser@gruber I chose light mode, but technically switch to dark when it’s bedtime to discourage me from using my phone
Jake Lee
Damon Ferguson@gruber Dark Mode, but with Light Mode app icons on the Home screens.
bubbajet
Zaͩnͦsͤt̀́rͤa̅̆̈@gruber I do like a night mode, but with bigger font size 👓
Owen 🇦🇺 
Doug Bailey@gruber switching by time of day seems kind of bonkers to me. Never would have guessed that would lead.
coffeemonk@gruber Have to admit, this result really surprises me!
Phil Hirst@gruber Jumping in late after listening to the show today, I’m a dark mode guy, however *except* for Apple Maps. I don’t find dark maps easy to discern. It drove me crazy that there was and there still is not an in-app option to force Maps to be in light mode. Many apps you can choose but not maps - which is nuts. So, I have two shortcut automations set. One when I open Maps or FindMy my phone switches to light mode. When I leave the same apps, it switches back! @louie @daringfireball
Paul McGrane
David Smith@gruber I've always found it really interesting how varied Light/Dark is between my apps. Widgetsmith is used 2/3 Dark, whereas Pedometer++ is the exact opposite with 2/3 Light.
All I can observe is the current value so it is _possible_ that automatic switching is enabled and the apps just have different time of day use patterns, but the difference is large enough that I suspect it is demographic. Widgetsmith skews younger and Pedometer++ skews older, which I suspect is the real root.
Nigel Wadsworth 🇦🇺@_Davidsmith @gruber I need to walk more to get the fancy version of Pedometer++. Or I should do it anyway to feed _
Eshu Marneedi@_Davidsmith @gruber Younger people — a demographic I (still) consider myself a part of — predominantly use dark mode all the time, so this checks out. I believe the desire for dark mode among the youth has its roots in gaming, and that’s why.
Jon_Alper@_Davidsmith Fascinating. Thank you for sharing this! @gruber
Ali Shah@_Davidsmith @gruber anecdotal but as a Gen Z’er I’ve noticed dark mode is more prevalent as well. I hardly know anyone that uses automatic mode. Light mode is a meme (really).
@_Davidsmith Perhaps you could correlate to time of day? But age demographics are my bet for your apps’ split too.
Curtis Bridges 
@gruber @_Davidsmith I'm old and use dark mode everywhere (25 years of light mode blinded me enough) but I still use light mode in Pedometer++. To be frank, the color palette of its dark mode just isn't appealing. (Sorry, David!)
I just think there isn't enough contrast. Dark mode with text is white on black; muted green on dark grey just sort of looks dirty. 🤷
Abazigal@_Davidsmith Possible. I have been a pedometer user since the iPhone 5s days.
Greg Pierce@_Davidsmith @gruber Are your analytics based on in-app use, or also track widget use? And do you allow people to override the system appearance? Obviously, both those apps are way more used in widgets than the average app.
Dana Scott@_Davidsmith @gruber I must be a “young” old Baby Boomer from ‘52. I’m in dark mode except when links in emails are unreadable (small dark blue hyperlinked text on a black). My EV6 has light and dark mode for the dash and infotainment displays, and are dark mode 100% of the time. Am I the exception that proves the rule? LOL
And yes, Widgetsmith and Sleep++, two @_Davidsmith apps I always use, are dark mode. Of course, daringfireball.net is always quasi-dark mode, which suits me just fine.
Colin Devroe@_Davidsmith @gruber I wonder if people, like myself, use Pedometer++ while walking in daylight and so prefer light mode then (even if set to automatic).
David Lynch@gruber so, I just want to show you my 16 year old daughter’s Home Screen. She’s feeling very excluded by the lack of a “tinted” option here, even though I guess this is technically a subset of dark. 😅
underflo