- The web version of Google Calendar has been given an official dark mode
- The feature is rolling out globally this week to all Calendar users.
- Google also gave Calendar a “refreshed user interface.”
If you’ve been waiting patiently for years for Google Calendar to offer an official dark mode, today is your day: the web version of the app has finally received an optional darker color scheme, as well as a slight redesign.
The news came in a Google Workspace blog post in which Google said it was introducing the ability to switch between light mode, dark mode, and default themes. As previous reports have noted, dark modes may allow you to slightly reduce battery life, especially if you’re using a device with an OLED display.
The update is currently rolling out, although it is also now available to a few members of the TechRadar team. To see if you have it, go to the settings gear at the top right of the page, then in the new drop-down menu click “Appearance” (see above).
You will then see the menu below – choose “Dark” and you will be treated to the pleasant sight of the new dark mode. That’s not all that’s changed, either: the typography and controls have been tweaked in accordance with Google’s “Material Design 3” guidelines, which Google says make it “more modern and accessible.”
The calendar certainly looks cleaner to us, but dark mode is the main improvement we’re particularly happy to see.
Caution: May cause extension headaches
In slightly less good news, Google says these changes could break some of your Chrome extensions if they “are active while using Google Calendar.”
Google didn’t specify which extensions might be affected, but said some “may not work as expected” and that you should contact the extension’s developers if there are any issues. We imagine that extensions like G-Calize (for color-coded calendars) and Timely could be the kind of extensions that could be affected.
Other affected extensions could include some theme customizers that became available in the Chrome Web Store when it seemed Google was hesitant to create an official one.
Luckily, that dark mode is now here – which is good news both for our eyes and for laptop battery life in general.