Elon Musk has backtracked on his previous decision of having a permanent dark mode for Twitter (now X). The billionaire previously announced that the microblogging platform will only offer support for dark mode in the future.
"This platform will soon only have “dark mode”. It is better in every way," Musk wrote in response to a user post asking whether the verification checkmark would look good in dark mode. For reference, Twitter's dark mode is called Lights Out.
This platform will soon only have “dark mode”. It is better in every way.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 27, 2023
It wasn't long before the X owner took to his official handle and announced that the light theme is here to stay. Musk said that the dark mode will be the default option on the platform but the option to dim the brightness, which makes the background appear dark blue in color, will be kicked out.
"A lot of people have asked to keep light mode, so we will, but the default will be dark and dim will be deleted," he said while responding to another user. While there were lovers of dark mode, many X users came forward to oppose Musk's decision to pull the plug on the light theme.
I actually prefer the white background burning my retinas
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) July 27, 2023
Elon NOO. Reading is much more pleasant with a light background. Black words on light pages have been the norm since the beginning of time. This is the Aesthetic the human brain associates with reading. There are deep seated, almost subconscious, expectations around reading...
— Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) July 27, 2023
If you consider a11y, when a platform in its core contains text and media - readers deserve to select their preferred mode. There is a reason it's a manual toggle (or a time-based toggle).
— Rahul Chakraborty (@hckmstrrahul) July 27, 2023
Please dont design such things on personal preferences - unless you keep that setting…
Aesthetics aside, the dark mode setting can be helpful when using a device at night or in places with less light. It can be easier on the eyes of the users when compared to a traditional setting where black text is displayed on a white background. However, dark mode may cause trouble or discomfort to people with astigmatism and dyslexia.
You can change the theme on the Twitter website by clicking on the More button > Settings and Support > Display. It should be noted that existing theme options Default, Dim, and Lights Out were available at the time of writing.
All of this comes after Musk kicked off the rebranding of Twitter to X earlier this week. While the company is already known as X Corp on paper, recent developments saw the demise of the iconic bird logo and a new X.com domain coming into place.
The company also changed its official handle to @X which was taken away from the original owner Gene X Hwang. However, Twitter's rebranding may have some complications as Meta and Microsoft own the "X" trademark for social media and video games respectively.
The new logo appears quite similar to the one used for Xbox and it has taken the bird's place on the app's Android and web version. But curious minds have figured out a way to replace X with the old Twitter logo.
Via: Gizmodo
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