DarkSwitch commands iOS’ dark/light modes based on display brightness

One of my favorite features to ship with iOS 13 is native dark mode support. Not only is it something that I’ve wanted to have for several years, but it plays so nicely with the OLED display that comes standard in Apple’s flagship handsets for both enhanced aesthetics and lengthened battery life.

One way that I think dark mode could be improved, however, is with some kind of tool that automatically switches between dark and light mode depending on display brightness, as it would improve interface visibility in certain situations. Fortunately, that’s precisely the functionality that a free jailbreak tweak called DarkSwitch by iOS developer udevs appears to provide for users.

After you install DarkSwitch, your handset will automatically switch between dark and light mode based on your handset’s display brightness. You can configure whether higher brightness toggles dark mode or vice-versa depending on your personal preference (and the same for lower brightness), but regardless of how you roll, here’s an animated GIF demoing how the tweak works:

You’ll notice that the transition between dark and light mode is nearly instantaneous after adjusting the brightness level, and it’s that butter-smooth behavior that makes us appreciate just how finely made this tweak is.

It should be noted that DarkSwitch adds a preference pane to the Settings app where users can configure a number of settings to their liking:

Here, you can:

  • Enable or disable DarkSwitch on demand
  • Reverse normal behavior (causes light mode at higher brightness as opposed to the other way around)
  • Configure the display brightness threshold at which the device switches between dark and light mode

In my personal opinion, the best way to take advantage of DarkSwitch is to have dark mode enabled at higher brightness and light mode enabled at a lower brightness. It’s difficult to imagine any situation where you might do the opposite, however we did configure the tweak that way for the animated GIF demonstration above.

Those interested in trying DarkSwitch can download the tweak for free from udevs’ beta repository via their preferred package manager. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 13 & 14 devices.

If you aren’t already using udevs’ beta repository, then you can add it to your package manager with the following URL:

https://udevsharold.github.io/repo/

Do you plan to give DarkSwitch a try, or are you happy with toggling between dark and light mode manually? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.