Dark Mode Comes to Microsoft 365

Let there be light? Microsoft isn't having any of that: the company announced on Wednesday that it's bringing dark mode to Microsoft 365's web and mobile apps in the coming weeks.

Microsoft isn't any stranger to making its apps more friendly to night owls; the company added dark modes to its desktop apps with the introduction of Office 2010. But the shift to a services model--and the accompanying launch of web and mobile apps--led the company to refocus on early birds. Now it's finally making dark mode available to every Microsoft 365 product on the web, desktop, Android and iOS with a few updates at a time..

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These updates will serve multiple functions. The obvious is making it more comfortable to use Microsoft's web and mobile apps in the dark without being blinded. Microsoft said the introduction of dark mode in its apps could help save battery life, too, although we aren't sure how big a difference it will make. Some people also prefer to use dark mode just because it looks cool. (We blame George Lucas for making the dark side seem so badass.).

The new dark mode is available now in Office.com as well as Outlook for iOS and Android. This update will be followed with a much larger one in a few weeks: Microsoft said the "upcoming launch of iOS 13 will then extend this rollout to Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner,and To-Do on mobile." The project will continue with updates "for all Outlook clients, Planner and OneDrive on web" later on.

Dark mode wasn't the only Microsoft 365 update to arrive yesterday. The company also introduced new features to Office, OneNote and Yammer, as well as IT-focused changes. More information about those updates--plus another look at dark mode in action--can be found in the announcement.