Apple's macOS Catalina fixes the most annoying thing about Dark Mode

2025-04-28 12:02:45admin

When Apple introduced a system-wide Dark Mode in macOS Mojave, I was happy, because I'm one of those people who are prepared to squint and hurt their eyes just to have a cool-looking desktop.

But Dark Mode in Mojave has a glaring omission -- there was no option to automatically turn it on and off, depending on time of day. Help came in the form of third-party apps, but honestly, this should've been an option from the get go.

In Catalina, the next major version of macOS, Apple rectified this by adding an Auto Dark Mode option.

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SEE ALSO: Apple announces macOS 10.15 Catalina

As noticed by 9to5Mac, the option will be available in System Preferences -- General, where you'll be able to choose your desktop appearance to be either Light, Dark, or Auto. Once you set it to auto, various design elements of your desktop will automatically get darker in the evening, and lighter in the morning.

For Auto Dark Mode to look even cooler you should have a Dynamic Desktop wallpaper -- Apple's special wallpaper format, also introduced in Mojave, that changes with the time of day. With Catalina, Apple is bringing one all-new Dynamic Desktop that shows the Santa Catalina Island in California -- but Catalina isn't coming out until fall. If you're impatient, though, some Redditors have already uploaded it (in several formats).

UPDATE: June 8, 2019, 9:48 a.m. CEST The original version of the article said that Dark Mode saves battery life, but that would only work on a laptop with an OLED screen, which none of the MacBooks currently have. As is, using darker interface colors will only save battery life on an iPhone, but not on any of the MacBooks.

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