When Android 10 officially rolled out, dark mode aficionados were a bit miffed to see that several of the apps that were still white hadn't been updated yet. The Google app, Play Store, Maps, and Gmail were the biggest holdouts, but now the last one is finally getting its darkness on.

Signs of Gmail's dark mode had been popping up left and right — in the settings, widget, and splashscreen — then our first real look at the entire app in dark came from Android 10's official site. Now, it's rolling out server-side to some users on v2019.08.18.267.

Left: Gmail in dark. Right: Theme setting.

If the invisible forces are in your favor, you should see a theme menu in settings with options to force Gmail to always light, dark, or follow the system default. If you haven't been blessed by the Google gods, you can either be patient or manually enable it. Reddit user u/careslol found a way, but it requires root:

  • Go to datadatacom.google.android.gmshared_prefsFlagPrefs.xml

  • Search for "DarkThemeSupport" (should be one of the first flags) and change to True. Save.

  • Force close Gmail and reopen. Theme support should be now there in the General Settings.

Either way, it seems that you need to have v2019.08.18.267 of Gmail for this to work. You can get it from the Play Store or from APK Mirror.

UPDATE: 2019/09/24 7:48am PDT BY RITA EL KHOURY

Google has officially announced Gmail's dark mode, saying the rollout begins today and will take 15 days (or potentially more) to show up for all users.

UPDATE: 2019/10/18 6:13pm PDT BY RYNE HAGER

Based on a recent tip, as well as our own anecdotal experiences here at Android Police, Gmail's dark theme has started rolling out more widely.

Left: Before. Right: After. 

Not all of us have dark theme just yet. Presumably, the rollout is either still limited in scope or in progress, but it's hitting more phones as we speak.

The dark theme for Gmail is controlled by a server-side flag (the specific one is mentioned in our original coverage above), but at least one of the devices to get it was running the latest 2019.09.15.270135155 release for the Gmail app — though other phones about our digital offices running the same version have yet to see it.

As always, YMMV, but if you happen to be on an older release, you can download this latest version over at APK Mirror to see if it makes a difference. (Before you get too excited, it probably won't.)

Thanks: Johny Hongkong

Gmail Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
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Source: Reddit (1), (2)

Thanks: Kieron Quinn