Instagram for Android gains dark mode in beta

Instagram is the latest mobile app that it's getting a dark mode, although not everyone will benefit from the new feature. It looks like the beta version is the only one that's been updated with dark mode, but the good news is it should work with both Android 10 and Android 9.0 Pie devices.

Some Instagram beta users recently spotted a new dark theme toggled in their app, 9to5google reports. Apparently, if you're using a Pixel phone with Android 10, when you enable the system-wide dark theme, it will activate the Instagram dark mode as well.

On the other hand, the new dark mode in Instagram is compatible with Samsung's system-wide Night Mode on Android 9.0 Pie. You can head to Settings / Display / Advanced / Device Theme and choose to switch to Dark. Using the Dark theme will also enable the dark mode in the Instagram beta app.

There's one visible issue with the new feature though, as the black color of the theme completely covers the battery, time and notification icons while you're using Instagram. They become visible again once you close the app, but that's not how dark mode should work, so we're expecting this to be fixed by the time the stable build will get the new feature.