Attention, fellow sensitive-eyed folks: we may all be in luck. Today, Guilherme Rambo of 9to5Mac reported that references in WebKit's source code suggest that a dark mode may be coming to macOS in the near future.
For those of you who aren't familiar, WebKit is the open-source web browser engine used by multiple Apple products, including Safari, Mail, and the App Store on all Apple operating systems. Because it's developed publicly, sometimes hints about new features that may show up on macOS and iOS end up surfacing. In this particular case, Rambo spotted some new code implemented in March that might suggest macOS 10.14 will get a system-wide dark mode.
The code in question is designed to adapt WebKit's rendering of a website based on the effective appearance of the application. Appearances are the way through which macOS can change the look of UI components like buttons and lists based on assets provided by the system … Having the concept of a system appearance means Apple is working on a way to change the appearance of apps globally, although there are no direct references to a dark mode (for obvious reasons), but the most likely reason for the existence of an API like this is a dark mode.
Though this isn't necessarily 100% conclusive evidence that a dark mode will show up in macOS 10.14, it is a substantial clue, which is pretty thrilling to individuals like myself who love Macs but prefer not to constantly hurt their eye orbs on painfully bright UIs, no matter how beautiful. Rambo also mentions that there is technically a dark mode option that has been present in macOS since El Capitan, but that app developers have to explicitly choose to utilize it, which definitely isn't as fantastic as making it available globally across all apps no matter what.
For more information on Rambo's findings, check out his article here.
Thoughts?
Do you crave that good, good darkness on your Mac? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
