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Google Assistant is going goth, with dark mode coming to a future Chrome OS update
Light theme is getting some tweaks, too
It's been almost a year since Google started working on giving Chrome OS some darker hues. Despite dark mode's long development time, it still looks pretty unfinished today (even in Canary), and we'll probably be waiting for some time before Google officially launches it. With the highly requested feature slowly trekking its way towards the finish line, Google has been steadily rolling out updates that introduce new sprinkles of dark theme goodies, like dynamic theme switching and scheduled dark mode. And now, Google Assistant is raring to embrace its new goth makeover.
Try these 3 super-useful Chromebook features you didn't even know were there
Google smuggled a few nifty, experimental features into Chrome OS 90
It's been a week since Google launched its big Chrome OS 90 update, and while it's nowhere near as jam-packed as 89, it did introduce a handy new diagnostics app, improved Tote (formerly Holding Space), and more. Since its release, we've been digging into the new update and unearthing even more features that could improve your Chromebook experience. Here are three experimental improvements we've found that you can try right now.
Google's new light and dark system theme for Chrome OS is around the corner — here's what it looks like
Quickly switch system themes with a click of a button
A few days ago, I covered the new wallpaper collections that Google published on the Chrome OS Canary channel. I bring this up because while I was writing that article, I noticed that some of the wallpapers in the Elements collection have light and dark variants. I'll admit — I was unsure if this suggested we were getting a dark theme soon, but I knew it was coming thanks to several code changes discovered by Chrome Story. I did not expect Google also to be working on a light theme.
Gboard is about to get a new look on Android
The design previously leaked as part of an APK teardown
Google has been working on a Gboard redesign for more than two months now, and it looks like the company is finally starting to roll it out to the first few beta testers currently using version 9.8.07 of the app. The new look trades the Roboto font for Product Sans and fits the latest revisions to Google's Material Theme much better.
Usually, we're stuck waiting for dark themes to land, but today's news is the opposite: A more uniform light theme has rolled out to Nest smart displays. Seemingly delivered via a software update (v. 28.8.19.320035839, according to 9to5Google), more UI elements now match the otherwise bright white light theme on both smart displays.
SeriesGuide v53 update brings light and dark theme switching to the masses
Plus automatic theme switching via Android 10 system settings, and more
Frequent TV watchers or ardent fans of specific series are likely familiar with SeriesGuide, which makes it much easier to follow your favorite shows, get notifications for new episodes, and even sync your lists across devices. A new version of the app (v53) is rolling out now, and trickling light/dark theme switching down from an in-app purchase to a standard feature, and bringing support for system-level theme switching on supported devices, among other smaller changes.
Those of you who are fans of darker themes on software won't be happy with this change we've discovered in the Android 8.1 Oreo developer preview: toast messages now have a lighter, inverted theme. This was likely done in order to match the rest of the much whiter user interface, which the gray toasts didn't really go with.