Ask HN: What's your opinion on automatic light/dark mode switching on websites? 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? |
Ask HN: What's your opinion on automatic light/dark mode switching on websites? 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? |
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.
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.
- Clicking the button switches between manual light and dark modes.
- Double-clicking resets it to "auto" mode.
It’s particularly useful at night when you navigate to a website that blinding you with white for no reason.
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.
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.
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.