Google Calendar finally gets an official dark mode on the web – here’s how to find it
It’s only been 67 years, Google…
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If you’ve been patiently waiting years forGoogleCalendar to deliver an official dark mode, today is your day – the web version of the app has finally been given a darker optional color scheme, along with a mild redesign.
The news came in aGoogle Workspace blog postwhere Google said that it’s introducing the ability to switch between light mode, dark mode, and default themes. Asprevious reports have noted, dark modes can give you a small battery life saving, particularly if you’re using a device with anOLEDscreen.
The update is rolling out now, though it’s also become available to a few members of the TechRadar team so far. To see if you have it, head to the settings cog at the top right of the page, then in the new drop-down menu click ‘Appearance’ (see above).
You’ll then see the menu below – choose ‘Dark’ and you’ll be treated to the eye-pleasing sight of the new dark mode. That’s not everything that’s changed either – the typography and controls have been tweaked in line with Google’s ‘Material Design 3’ guidelines, which Google says makes it “more modern and accessible.”
The calendar certainly looks cleaner to us, but the dark mode is the main improvement that we’re particularly happy to see.
Warning: may cause extension headaches
In slightly less good news, Google says these changes may break some of your Chrome extensions if they “are active when using Google Calendar.”
Google didn’t elaborate on what extensions might be affected but said some “might not work as expected” and that you should contact the extension’s developers with any issues. We’d imagine ones like G-Calize (for color-coding calendars) and Timely might be the kind of extensions that could be affected.
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Other affected extensions could include some theme customizers that became available in the Chrome Web Store when it looked like Google was reluctant to make an official one.
Fortunately, that dark mode is now here – which is good news for both our eyes and laptop battery lives in general.
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Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.
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