Google Chrome's dark mode is getting even darker – here's how to try it now

Google is planning a major update to Chrome for mobile devices, which will apply a dark theme to search results when the browser is in dark mode.

Chrome's dark mode gives your eyes a welcome break, particularly when you're browsing the web at night, but there's a problem: it only changes the color of the browser interface itself. When you use Google Search (which is how most Chrome users interact with the web), the results page is still dazzling white.

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Now, as Android Police reports, Google is preparing an update that will rectify that problem, changing the color of search results to match your preferred browser theme.

This is a welcome development, and one that comes as little surprise since Google made the same update to its standalone Google Search app last week. If you have your phone's system-wide dark mode enabled, the app will automatically switch to a matching design to stop you squinting.

The power of the dark side

If you have an Android device, you can try the new, darker search results for yourself by installing Chrome Canary and activating a flag to enable the feature.

The flag (a control that allows you to activate new or experimental options) has been visible for some time, but it's only just become functional. To enable it, go to chrome://flags in Chrome Canary and search for the flag 'Show darkened search pages on Android'. Click the switch to enable the option, then restart the browser. 

It's worth noting that the new design might go through a few changes before it's added to the release version of Chrome, so don't worry if a few elements look a little strange or hard to read at the moment. We expect the dark results page will arrive on iOS soon as well. We'll keep you updated once it does.

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