Many Google products have introduced an optional dark mode in recent years, which not only darkens the surface significantly but also ensures a uniform design. But now Google’s designers are apparently deviating from the specifications of the time and are working on making the surfaces a little darker. Interestingly, different shades of color are used.
Most websites have a white background in normal mode and a very dark background when dark mode is active. However, this is very often not black, but a very dark gray. This is also the case with Google’s apps, but with web search, they are now looking to darken these colors even further and move towards an all-black background.
Just a few days ago, a completely black web search based on the color code #000000 surfaced. Black is not possible. Now there is a similar test run with the smartphone app, which can also be seen darker than before by some users – but not in a complete black. There seems to be a little more leeway on the smartphone and we had already opted for a slightly lighter color scheme than on the desktop.
Previously, the smartphone used the background color with the color code #202124 and now it is #171717. This is much darker, both visually and in terms of color steps, but still a long way from full black. Take a look at the two screenshots for comparison and the image of the new web search dark mode below.
Personally, I don’t understand why complete black isn’t also used on smartphone. However, I can imagine that on the smaller displays and with the changed display technology it will look a little different than on the large desktop screens. They either try different color types or actually seem to adapt to the respective technology in order to always achieve the same effect.