How to Enable Dark Mode on Zoom

Thanks to the dark mode feature on computers and mobile devices, people can finally reduce the eye strain from bright screens. That is especially true when using your device at night in almost total darkness. Following this trend, many apps integrated this feature as well, creating an ecosystem with reduced screen glare.

As far as the Zoom app is concerned, the dark mode only recently came to mobile devices. With the native support for dark mode on Mac OS X computers only, Windows users have been left waiting. Fortunately, there are ways to enable dark mode on almost any system you might use.

How to Enable Dark Mode for Zoom on an iPhone

Until recently, the Zoom mobile app did not have a feature to enable dark mode. This affected both Android and iOS devices. Thanks to an August 2020 update, you can now enable dark mode using your phone’s system settings.

Doing this on your iPhone and iPad devices is easier than ever.

1. Open the “Settings” app on your iOS device.
   
   
   
2. Tap the “Display & Brightness” option.
   
   
   
3. At the top of the Display & Brightness menu, you will see the “Appearance” options.
   
   
   
4. Tap “Dark.”

By default, the Light mode is on. Simply tap Dark and the entire appearance of your iPhone will turn darker momentarily.

Now when you open the Zoom app on your device, you will see that it turned dark as well. If you want to revert back to Light mode, simply repeat the steps above and select Light.

If you prefer to switch between the Light and Dark modes frequently, you can do this even more conveniently.

Using Control Panel to Access Dark Mode

1. Pull down the Control Center menu by swiping your finger from the top right corner of the screen.
   
   
   
2. Tap and hold the Brightness control from the control center.

You will notice the appearance icon that allows you to switch from Light to Dark appearance and vice versa. Just tap this icon and you are all set.

Of course, these changes will automatically affect the Zoom iOS app as well.

How to Enable Dark Mode for Zoom on an Android Device

Just like with the Zoom app for iOS, Android devices can use the app’s dark mode now. All you have to do is enable dark mode on your device and Zoom will automatically adhere to these settings.

1. Open the “Settings” menu on your Android device.
   
   
   
2. Tap the “Display and Brightness” option.
   
   
   
3. Right at the top of the Display menu, you will see the “Light and Dark” options. Tap dark mode to enable it.
   
   
   

When you open Zoom on your Android smartphone or tablet, it will use the dark mode based on your system preferences.

If you want to further customize your dark mode experience, you can tap the Dark mode settings option in the Display menu. This gives you three options.

• Turn on as scheduled allows you to set the time when your system should switch automatically between the Dark and Light modes.
  
• Apply to wallpaper is pretty self-explanatory, but will only work with the system default wallpapers.
  
• Finally, there is the Adaptive color filter option. This automatically turns on the Blue light filter feature for the time between sunset and sunrise. Thanks to this, you can reduce the strain on your eyes even more, especially in the evening hours. To use this option, you will have to turn on the Location option as well. This way, the Blue light filter will synchronize with your time zone, so it knows when sunset and sunrise take place in your location.

How to Enable Dark Mode for Zoom on a Mac

Contrary to mobile apps, when using a Mac computer, you can turn on dark mode directly from your Zoom app. Since this is a built-in feature, it’s completely independent of the system settings. Of course, there’s an option to automatically align the app’s dark mode with the one active on your system.

To turn on the Dark Mode in Zoom, follow these steps:

1. Open the Zoom app and click on the “Settings” icon in the top right corner of the app’s interface.
   
   
   
2. In the menu on the left, click “General.”
   
   
   
3. Under themes, select “Dark.”
   
   
   

When selecting the Zoom theme as explained in Step 3 above, you’ll notice there is one more option besides Light and Dark. The Use System Settings option allows you to do exactly what it says. As mentioned above, this comes in handy when you want to align Zoom’s theme with your computer’s appearance.

Switching to general Dark mode on Mac

Anytime you use Dark Mode on your computer, Zoom will also turn dark. That is especially useful if you have set the themes on your computer to automatically alternate depending on the time of the day. In the daytime, the computer will use the Light Theme and will switch to dark after sunset.

If you are not sure how to turn on the automatic theme switching in your Mac’s settings, simply follow the steps below:

1. Click the “Apple logo” in the upper-left corner of the screen.
   
   
   
2. Click “System Preferences.”
   
   
   
3. Click “General.”
   
   
   
4. The first option is Appearance. Right next to it you’ll notice three options: Light, Dark, and Auto.
   
   
   
5. Select “Auto.” As soon as you do that, your Mac’s entire interface will adjust to whichever theme it should use at the moment.
   
   
   
6. Close the General menu and finish up.
   
   

Now every time your computer adjusts its appearance based on the time of day, Zoom will follow it with its Dark mode.

How to Enable Dark Mode for Zoom on a Windows 10 PC

Unlike the Zoom app for Mac, the Windows 10 app doesn’t come with an integrated Dark Mode option. Although that may seem like bad news, there is a workaround for this problem. Sort of.

Besides using the Zoom desktop app, you can also use the online version through an internet browser. If you use Google Chrome, you will be able to enable the browser’s dark mode on the online app. The only downside to this is that you won’t be able to have Dark Mode in Zoom while in a meeting.

To turn the online Zoom appearance to a darker color, do the following:

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer and go to https://zoom.us
   
   
   
2. Click “Sign In” in the top right corner of the screen.
   
   
   
3. Log in with your Zoom username and password.
   
   
   
4. Now open a new tab in Google Chrome, copy this link into the address bar and hit enter: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark. This will open the page with experimental options for Google Chrome. Here you will see that the Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents option is highlighted in yellow.
   
   
   
5. Select “Default.”
   
   
   
6. From the drop down menu select “Enabled with selective inversion of “everything.”
   
   
   
7. Now it is time to restart Chrome. You do it by simply clicking on the Relaunch button at the bottom right corner of the page. Before you do, be sure to save any work you might have in the windows and tabs that you have opened.
   
   
   
8. Go to the Zoom page and login to your account. Now you should see that the Zoom interface has changed to Dark Mode as well.
   
   

To revert back to the normal mode for Zoom and other websites, simply follow the steps above. The only difference this time will be in Step 9. Here you have to change the Enabled with selected inversion of everything value to Default.

How to Enable Dark Mode for Zoom on a Chromebook

Unfortunately, the Zoom app for Chrome OS does not support Dark Mode. On the bright side, the app’s interface is mostly dark grey so it won’t overwhelm your eyes with bright colors. The only bright thing in its interface is the Settings menu.

Of course, if you want, you can use Zoom directly in Google Chrome and enforce Dark Mode. To do so, simply follow the steps as explained in the previous section for enabling this in Windows 10.

Zooming in the Dark

Hopefully, you now know how to enable Dark Mode on your Zoom app. ChangingZoom’s interface to be darker and thus saving your eyes from unnecessary strain can be important when working long hours. Especially when working in low light conditions.

Have you managed to turn on Dark Mode on Zoom? Which device you are using it on? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.