It was announced a long time back (around September 15, that is) that WhatsApp is going to launch its dark theme mode, following the path of YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and many more. Saving on the easily dropping battery percentage or being the perfect companion at night, the dark theme is a much-anticipated feature indeed. However, we had no clue about what the thing is actually going to look like, that is, until today. IOS users have been granted the boon to have the first sight of how the dark theme will look to our eyes, although still in the alpha stage.
Thanks to WABetaInfo, we are getting a complete view of the dark theme mode in the alpha stage on an iPhone. We must, however, keep in mind that it is still under construction and the final look might differ exponentially. Android users shouldn’t be very excited about the new feature, keeping in mind that as the usual mode, the dark theme mode will also be sufficiently different from the iOS one.
This imminent feature has been disclosed within the alpha code in the latest version which has been released today, making its version to 2.18.100. Let’s make it clear that the dark mode won’t be available with the latest update as of yet. It’s also worth noting that the white theme will continue to remain as the default mode and the dark theme will be available only as an additional option.
The theme, if you see from the pictures clearly, has a dark gray color for the background. The incoming messages, too, will appear in bubbles of the same color, while the outgoing texts will be wrapped in dark green colored bubbles. Besides the dark theme, the latest update of the app ensures improvements to its user interface, a perfect setting suiting the bigger screen resolution of the iPhone Xs Max. The app also has a redesigned bubble action menu, which disguises the background in a darker shade once it is long-pressed. The options are arranged horizontally, a sharp contrast to the vertically aligned menu of the earlier versions.
The list of actions displayed in the first popup has been significantly increased in the new design as the arrow button (for forwards) have been replaced by an ellipse, which leads you to further available options. It is cool that the latest update allows replying to status updates with documents, voice notes, locations, vCards, etc. In fact, consecutive voice messages will even be played in sequence now (how cool is that!)
There is an unsaid promise about supporting videos in the notification extension to officially roll out to iOS too. You can get the newest update from the App Store now.
