WeChat says no 'dark mode' for the sake of your sleeping quality

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WeChat, the "messaging and everything else" super app with more than a billion regular users, still doesn't have a dark mode.

On Thursday the WeChat team gave an official explanation. "We hope you don't chat too much and stay up late," citing the dark mode as night mode.

But is this the real reason? Users expressed their doubts on Weibo.

"Why not shut down the server after 10 p.m. every day, if you care so much about our sleep quality?" a user nicknamed "CrossCash" commented, who got more than 200 upvotes.

WeChat remains black, as we checked on April 5. /Screenshot from Google Play

In fact, dark mode can do more than help reduce eye strain. It's also very helpful for battery life if your phone has an LED screen.

Different from a traditional LCD screen, the LED consumes little to no energy while displaying black. This is because a smartphone LED screen is roughly a miniaturized version of those giant, red-color LED screens you see on the street – "Displaying black" basically means "doing nothing."

So WeChat lingering on its white-colored theme means its users have to tolerate two things. One, a dazzling bright display at night; two, a must-have app that drains battery faster than it could.

Popular smartphones with LED screens include Galaxy S and Note series, iPhone (since X), Google Pixel series and Huawei P and Mate series (since P20 Pro). New phones tend to be equipped with this type of screen.

Many manufacturers call the technology OLED or AMOLED.

So there are a lot of phones that can benefit from dark mode and there are more coming. And WeChat users are not satisfied with this missing feature.

"I can choose not to use the dark mode. But you should provide one," said "LETLIIT" on Weibo. Similar comments also got more than 200 upvotes.