What Is Override Force Dark Android 9?

Dark mode has been one of the favourite features of smartphones. A darker interface is easier on the eyes as well as more comfortable when using the device in low light and can even help to prolong battery life in devices with an OLED screen. While many apps and more recent versions of the Android operating system have their own dark themes, previous versions like version 9 (Android Pie) didn’t come with a more full-blown dark mode across the OS – at least not the way that Android 10 and more recent versions do.

That’s where Override Force Dark Android 9 comes in. This lesser-known aspect of Android is what helps Android implement a dark theme for apps that don’t implement a native dark theme. It’s especially helpful on Android 9 because there wasn’t any option for full dark mode otherwise. In this article, we’ll go over what Override Force Dark is, how it works, how to use it, and what to expect when making results using it.

Dark Force Override: What Is Dark Force Override?

Android 9 added some crude support for dark visuals and lacked the toggle on the app-wide feature. Instead, for experimentation purposes, Google put something in place in the Developer Options menu, Override Force Dark. This setting has the side-effect of rendering elements of the Android user interface and designs of Android apps in darker colors – even if it’s an app you’re using and it doesn’t have a dark design to begin with.

Essentially, it’s the way of Android to mimic the dark mode where there isn’t one. The system works by detecting elements on the UI and changing the color palette used to color the elements to make the elements that have bright backgrounds dark and light text easier to read at night, and generally change with much more contrast to make them darker presentations. It’s not ideal, sure, but it does work for a lot of users who want to have a consistent dark look across more apps within Android 9.

Why Is Override Force Dark Helpful?

There are a couple of reasons for the popularity of dark mode:

• Flavor for having eyes in the dark places
• Reduced glare at nigh
• Increased Battery Life for OOH Display
• Look preferred by the majority of people 

However, there were a lot of applications working on Android 9ers that had no support for dark themes in a native manner. This means that apps that have bright backgrounds could have a shiny bright look if you like your interface to be darker in nature. Override Force Dark fills that gap, and allows you to enjoy darker aesthetics more of your device – and apps that don’t support dark mode of their own.

For those users who peruse the web in dim light, use their device at night, or just prefer to see darker images, this is a feature that adds a level of customization that wouldn’t necessarily be available on an older version of Android.

How Over ride force Dark Operates?

Override Force Dark does exactly that by manipulating the ways UI elements are drawn on screen. is configured, Android will recalculate colors in layouts and components of apps to use darker colors for the background, UI elements, and other features visible to the user.

This is compared to the working of the native dark theme. A native dark mode has been designed by the app developers, which has a special set of colors and layouts tested. In contrast, Override Force Dark is a programmatic change in the colors of existing elements in the UI – in other words, it will render things darker in color without the cooperation of an app.

The result is not always quite perfect, but in most cases it’s pretty good. Some elements of the interface don’t have the right color as dark as supposed, sometime the color combination doesn’t look good. Despite that, an overwhelming majority of the use cases in the daily routine, the feature gives “a lot of the “dark feel” to your device.

How Over ride force Dark Operates?

Override Force Dark does exactly that by manipulating how UI elements are drawn on the screen. is configured, Android will recalculate colors in layouts and components of apps to use darker colors for the background, UI elements, and other features visible to the user.

This is when compared to the working of a native dark theme. A native dark mode has been designed by the app developers, with a special set of colors and layouts tested. In contrast, Override Force Dark is a programmatic change in the colors of existing elements in the UI – that is, it will render elements darker in color without the cooperation of an app.

The result is not always quite perfect, but usually it’s pretty good. Some elements of the interface don’t have right color as dark as supposed, sometimes the color combination doesn’t look good. Despite that, the vast majority of the use cases in the daily routine, the feature gives “a lot of the “dark feel” to your device.

Step By Step: Enable Override force dark Android 9

Since Override Force Dark is listed in Developer Options, you’ll first need to get to that menu first:

• Go to the Settings app in your Android
• Scroll down and select About phone (About phone or Software information on some devices).
• Find the Build number and tap on it repetitively (usually 7 times) to get a message regarding Developer mode has been enabled.
• Go back to Settings, and now, you should get a new Developer options to see.
• Open Developer options.
• Scroll and you will reach Override Force Dark (sometimes labelled Force Dark mode).
• Turn it on.

Once enabled, your device will automatically apply the darker tones on apps that don’t have dark themes already built in. For this effect to kick in, you may have to close and open apps.

How It Feels in Everyday Use?

Once you have turned on Override Force Dark you’ll see a few changes all across your device:

• Bright white backgrounds turn to dark grey or black
• Light text is always easy to read against dark backgrounds
• List views, menus, and dialog boxes are darker in colour
• Apps that have no native dark modes are more comfortable at night

This change impacts many of the system apps as well as third-party apps but the outcome will differ considerably depending on how the app was designed.

In some apps the overwrite works a treat – the glare is reduced, but the legibility is not lost. In others it may be dually applied to elements that don’t translate to dark mode too – for example, color highlights may be muted or become weird-looking. But for the most part, to many users, the advantages of a wider dark interface outweigh these occasional inconsistencies to the visual experience.

Conclusion

Override Force Dark Android 9 is an underrated and valuable feature to have dark interfaces for people. Although Android 9 does not have a dark theme integrated into the system, this hidden feature actually enables a lot of apps to have darker tones – to provide better comfort, reduce glare, and can be more unified in the process.

Whether you’re a night-time reader yourself, or perhaps a tired traveller, or perhaps just someone who’d prefer dark visuals, enabling Override Force Dark can help make sure that your device is also more modern and pleasing to use. It’s one of those little customization things, once you figure them out, and it’s basically just that your underlying phone experience is every day a little bit better.

If you’ve still got Android 9, this is one to give a try — and if you’ve moved to Android 10 and further, enjoy the official system-wide dark mode with even more polished support for apps.

Also Read: How to Restart Android Phone When the Mobile is not working?