Dark Mode has come to your Apple TV courtesy of the new tvOS 10 software. Indeed, Dark Mode makes sense on big screen TVs as it adjusts the appearance of backgrounds and menus throughout the user interface to make movie posters, icons and other information easier to read at night.
It’s a great enhancement, particularly for those people who may prefer a darker background to fit a home theater environment or darker rooms over the bright and fresh Apple TV interface. Here’s how you can quickly toggle between tvOS 10’s default Light appearance and the new Dark Mode.
You can select a dark background for your Apple TV in two different ways.
How to enable Dark Mode in Settings
1) Go to Settings → General → Appearance and select a new Dark option to change the appearance of backgrounds and menus to a much darker color scheme.
To revert to tvOS’s default appearance, select the Light option instead.
Alternatively, ask Siri to enable Dark or Light mode.
How to enable Dark Mode through Siri
1) Press the Siri Remote’s Siri button and say, “Enable Dark Mode”, or just “Dark Mode”.
To switch back to tvOS’s default bright interface, invoke Siri and say “Light Mode”.
I definitely prefer the Siri option versus having to poke around Settings.
Hands-on with Dark Mode on tvOS 10
Here’s a hands-on video about Dark Mode that my colleague Andrew put together shortly after a developer-only preview of tvOS 10 released back in the summer.
Are you excited for Dark Mode in tvOS 10?
I think it’s pretty cool and have it enabled on my Apple TV at night as I prefer not to be starring at tvOS’s bright user interface when sitting on my couch in a dark room.