Instagram testing out an AMOLED dark theme on Android
While dark themes have been around for years, it seems that it’s only been in the past few years that we’re starting to see it find its way to Android. Google has finally brought the feature to Android 10, although this mostly applies to its own apps and services, which means that for third-party apps, your mileage may vary.
The good news for Instagram users is that if you wanted a dark theme for the app, you’re in luck because it has been discovered that in the latest alpha update to Instagram, the company has introduced a dark theme to the app. As you can see in the screenshots above, this basically applies a dark look to the current design, but it should be noted that this dark theme seems to be an AMOLED dark theme.
Image credit – XDA Developers
What does this mean? In case you don’t know, AMOLED works by lighting up and turning off pixels. This means that black on AMOLEDs tend to be deeper and blacker compared to LCD. It also means that it does have the potential to be more energy efficient since the pixels that are black are basically turned off.
At the moment, there is no toggle to turn it on. Instagram users who want to take advantage of the theme will need to be running on Android 10 and enable dark mode. We expect that Instagram will eventually add the toggle, but for now, this is the only way to enable it. If your phone isn’t running Android 10, then you’d be out of luck.
Source: XDA Developers