Facebook Messenger redesign with Dark Mode rolls out for some users

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Since Facebook’s inception, it has expanded into many markets to enhance its core features. Over 2.5 billion people use at least one application owned by Facebook, with Messenger being one of the most popular. Messenger currently has 1.3 billion monthly active users. Back in May of this year, at the company’s F8 developer convention, the Messenger team announced they were working on a redesign for the application. That redesign looks to be rolling out right now and as promised it also comes with the highly requested dark mode feature.

People wanting dark mode options for applications is becoming increasingly popular. We intently covered the progress Google had made with their work on bringing dark mode to their own YouTube application. As we can see from both Google and Facebook, it can take a while for seemingly simple features to make it into the final build of an application. Facebook kept its promise though as we’re seeing reports from those within the community who are finally receiving the redesigned Facebook Messenger application that was promised back in May.

It’s interesting because the person who tipped this off to Android Police says this entire redesign happened via a server-side switch. This means there wasn’t an application update that brought the new look. This redesign changes the bottom bar to only include three tabs. The camera and new chat buttons have been moved to the top right of the application and other features including Games and Businesses have been moved into the third bottom “Explore” tab.

The tipster did not share screenshots of the dark mode, though it is apparently present. Personally, Dark Mode is one of those features that is very situational. If I sit and read an article on a website with a black background (in normal lighting conditions) for too long then it begins to mess with my eyes. For applications though, I’m typically not staring at the screen intently so the feature can actually be quite helpful. This is even more beneficial with smartphones using OLED screens as you save battery life the more black pixels the application is displaying.