Android is Google’s operating system that runs on the majority of handsets across the globe that are not an iPhone.
The newest version of Android, 9 Pie, arrived in August and initially debuted on the Essential Phone and Google Pixel devices.
Google’s latest and greatest software has since debuted on a number of other products from manufacturers such as OnePlus, Sony and Huawei to name a few.
Android 9 Pie was certainly more concerned with adding incremental improvements than radical overhauls.
However, the software still introduced a number of handy improvements such as gesture navigations, Adaptive Battery and tweaked aesthetics.
One feature many were hoping for in Android 9 Pie but that did not arrive was a system-wide dark mode.
The new software does feature a dark theme in its settings menu, but this only limits the dark colour to the app drawer and notification shade.
That means when you use Google applications that support a dark mode, such as Messages, dark themes are not already switched on and need to be activated manually.
Google has gradually rolled out darker aesthetics to its Android applications with Messages, YouTube and Phone being some of the many that tout one.
However, it appears the Mountain View firm is set to introduce a unified dark mode with the next version of Android, Q, that is expected to debut on devices later this year.
Android Police recently spotted a post on Google’s Chromium bug tracker blog that discussed the forthcoming feature.
Google Lukasz Zbylut stated a system-wide dark mode is “an approved Q feature”.
He added: “The Q team wants to ensure that all preloaded apps support dark mode natively.
“In order to ship dark mode successfully, we need all UI elements to be ideally themed dark by May 2019.”
Zbylut’s mention of May as a deadline for making the new aesthetic successful could suggest that is when Google will release the first preview of Android Q to developers.
The American tech giant has followed a similar release schedule for previous Android versions.
The Googler added the night setting in Android Q will be accessed in the settings menu under the display toggle.
It is worth noting the commit in the Chromium bug tracker blog was posted back in October, meaning the American tech giant’s exact plans for a dark mode may have changed since.
However, it does seem Google is determined to deliver a system-wide dark mode to fans that would, once turned on, ensure all native applications run with the specified theme rather than insisting users change the look manually.