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shankar2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 7, 2009
1,020
54
Hi so I activated dark mode in Twitter app on ios 12.x and it helps with eye strain.

My question is whether full dark mode in ios13 helps in reducing eye strain? How is the readability of this mode? I have iphone xr Thanks!
 

danmart

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2015
1,568
1,061
Lancs, UK
Hi so I activated dark mode in Twitter app on ios 12.x and it helps with eye strain.

My question is whether full dark mode in ios13 helps in reducing eye strain? How is the readability of this mode? I have iphone xr Thanks!
One of the significant causes of eye strain is focussing on an object much brighter than your surroundings. Dark mode may help with that, but so will reducing the brightness of your screen.
 

soniasim

macrumors regular
May 1, 2008
160
73
Had it on all the time during all the betas to give it a try, but with the release of the GM, I stayed with light mode.

I have to say I missed the light mode, reading is much easier now.
I can't say that dark mode helped me with eye strain, it was bearable when chatting or reading short texts, but try reading an ebook or a long PDF with dark mode on and you'll probably notice that it's much harder to read.

Also, it kinda reminds me more of an iOS device now.
To me, dark mode looked like an Android theme, quite a lot.

While I had the dark mode on, I also hated the transition between light and dark all the time, since most apps don't support it.
To add up, in my opinion many apps looked really terrible on dark mode (Calendar I'm looking at you).
Now I only have two apps with dark theme (Spotify & Netflix) and it feels much smoother.
 
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SoYoung

macrumors 65816
Jul 3, 2015
1,457
845
Dark mode will help if you stays in Apple apps like messages, calendar etc and just go to third party apps that support dark mode as well, but if you go to Safari or the news app, its all in white again so I strongly recommend to use a third party browser who completely support a dark mode like Firefox.
 
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palmerc2

macrumors 68000
Feb 29, 2008
1,623
683
Los Angeles
Dark Mode is the only thing I'm looking forward to this year. As soon as it was available on MacOS I put it on dark mode, and I'll do the same with iOS.

My only gripe is many websites still use a white background, such as MacRumors...however they did say they'll implement a dark mode "soon". I hope with MacOS + iOS implementing dark mode, it will spur more web designers and app developers to implement a dark mode option.
 
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gsmornot

macrumors 68040
Sep 29, 2014
3,600
3,714
I have it set to auto now. Initially it was 24/7 dark. Got tired of it. Now I like the mix of white during the day/dark at night.
Same here. I have it switch to dark mode at sunset. Its a good compromise for me since I can see the lighter color better in the sun and the darker colors are more subtle at night.
 

eicca

Suspended
Oct 23, 2014
1,773
3,598
Same here. I have it switch to dark mode at sunset. Its a good compromise for me since I can see the lighter color better in the sun and the darker colors are more subtle at night.

Same, on my iPhone. My iPad however stays in Dark Mode since I never have it outdoors and it makes it harder for people next to me to read my screen.
 

Deacon-Blues

macrumors 6502a
Aug 15, 2012
662
845
California
I haven’t had a good look at dark mode yet. Is it gray text on black or is it white on black? Because if it’s white on black I know for me that can be a little hard to look at for too long, almost like a negative image effect. Too much contrast. But gray on black is lovely.

Edit: I just found some images of dark mode. Most of it looks really good, really easy on the eyes.
 

gigapocket1

macrumors 68020
Mar 15, 2009
2,256
1,742
It’s just funny how times are changed... We switched to the clean white look. Everything looked great. Now we going to the clean black look.. It’s almost to the point that if your site doesn’t support dark mode.. or if your app doesn’t support dark mode. It won’t be used.
theirs nothing worst than being in a dark mode app and then opening another app that is all white. (Now imagine doing that at 3am)...
 

littlemidge

macrumors member
Oct 1, 2018
98
75
Since updating to iOS 13, the new dark mode is great, along with the new macrumours dark forum (which is looking brilliant!) it’s working well for me. I don’t see myself switching back now.
 

SoYoung

macrumors 65816
Jul 3, 2015
1,457
845
It’s just funny how times are changed... We switched to the clean white look. Everything looked great. Now we going to the clean black look.. It’s almost to the point that if your site doesn’t support dark mode.. or if your app doesn’t support dark mode. It won’t be used.
theirs nothing worst than being in a dark mode app and then opening another app that is all white. (Now imagine doing that at 3am)...
Thats because the drastic all in white look piss off many people at that time and many (me included) complained for years to have at least the choice for a darker theme. Before the 2010-11 era, the internet had way much variety on themes and colours.
 

tarsins

macrumors 65816
Sep 15, 2009
1,180
854
Wales
Don't like it - tried on my Macbook and had to turn it off after a week. I find it much harder to see/read stuff but I guess I'm the only one.

Same here. My problem with it - both on the Mac and now the iPhone - is that while it may well be easier on the eyes I find it really jarring after having been using a dark mode app for a while only to pop into mail and be greeted by a blinding white attachment. To claim "easier on the eyes", everything needs to support dark mode properly.
 

one more

macrumors 601
Aug 6, 2015
4,542
5,712
Earth
It is easier on the eyes in the dark for sure. Generally, it is easier to read bright text written on the dark background.

As far as eye (muscle) strain goes, our eye muscles are designed in a way that they are most relaxed when we look far and most strained when we look too close. The phones/computers generally fall into this “too close” range.

So if you must use your devices without break for a long time, just take regular short breaks to roll your eyes around and look far into a distance without straining your eyes as you do so. This should keep your eyes happier.
 

shankar2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 7, 2009
1,020
54
On new IOS 13, with dark mode I find my eyes have less strain. So I'm sticking with it throughout my iphone's apps wherever possible. :)
 

Vlad Soare

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2019
666
649
Bucharest, Romania
It's easier to read black text on a white background than the other way around. If newspapers or books were printed in white ink on black paper, reading them would be quite a chore.
But to each his own. It's good to have a choice. I just hope that this will remain a choice, I mean that the dark mode won't become the norm.
 
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Branaghan

macrumors regular
Jul 3, 2019
179
54

This link explains why a mere dark mode is just the tip of the iceberg. Unless you reduce brightness and take other measures such as (google this one) “bias lightning” then you are not truly helping yourself.
 

jpn

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2003
1,854
1,988
Hi so I activated dark mode in Twitter app on ios 12.x and it helps with eye strain.

My question is whether full dark mode in ios13 helps in reducing eye strain? How is the readability of this mode? I have iphone xr Thanks!

my thoughts:

1 Dark Mode is easier on yr eyes when you are using yr iPhone during really low lighting or if the room is totally dark. i dont think i have ever seen any actual study if it helps decrease eye strain. Likely that it does reduce eye strain though.

2 Turning down brightness on yr display however, probably will decrease eye strain.

2 Night Shift (which makes yr screen appear to be less of a white/light blue, and more of a slightly yellowed light) will decrease eye strain.

i have Dark Mode and Night Shift with automatically both set to be enabled by a schedule at Sunset until Sunrise. and automatically "dim the display" according to light conditions is also set as on.

i really like the combination of all of the above during evening hours, espeiclally the couple of hours directly before i go to sleep.
 
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MrGuder

macrumors 68040
Nov 30, 2012
3,026
2,012
Just viewing this forum page in dark mode is absolutely wonderful. I love dark mode. Best feature in iOS 13

We would never have got this if Jonny Ivy was still there, he campaigned for bright whites.
 
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