Last year, we got a sneak peek into how Google Maps will look when colored “dark”. Apparently, the dark theme never showed up when almost all Google apps now support it. Cut to now, Google has finally announced a dark theme for Google Maps and its first stop is Android although a Redditor already reported receiving the update that hints it is a server-side update.
Google is rolling out Dark Theme on Google Maps that force the theme to go dark. But there’s an option to tweak the theme. You can either set it to the normal light mode or you can force a dark theme or you can let Google Maps set either a light or dark theme based on the system theme of your device.
The Google Maps with a dark theme now shows a carousel of search suggestions, pill-shaped lookup options, and the bottom bar in a light gray color. All other buttons are also clad in a light gray color. You’ll get the directions in soft blue color along with the current tab. Google Maps has reserved the darkest shade of gray for the underlying map layer. When you zoom in, all the streets and road names are colored in a slightly lighter shade of gray.
Dark mode or theme is currently one of the hottest things to feature on apps and Google has done everything to roll it out on its suite of apps. Dark mode helps conserve essential battery life and relieves the user’s eyes from the strain that the phone’s display usually puts on the eyes. The first hint of a dark mode on Google Maps was spotted back in September 2020 as a server-side testing feature with a handful of users testing out the same before it would eventually roll out to others.
Users can set up dark mode by going through Settings >> Theme. According to the Palo Alto-based giant, the feature is rolling out to Android users this spring (a month later) and it is ever-expanding across the hundreds of millions of Android devices out there. There’s no update on when its iOS equivalent will get the update so iPhone users will have to wait even longer for sure.
