X

How to turn on Dark Mode in Facebook Messenger

The feature is rolling out to everyone right now.

Jason Cipriani Contributing Writer, ZDNet
Jason Cipriani is based out of beautiful Colorado and has been covering mobile technology news and reviewing the latest gadgets for the last six years. His work can also be found on sister site CNET in the How To section, as well as across several more online publications.
Jason Cipriani
Jason Cipriani/CNET

Facebook had been testing a dark mode for its Messenger app, limiting the scope of the test by requiring you to unlock it as a hidden feature by sending a crescent moon emoji. The added step made it fun to unlock, and also encouraged others to unlock the all-black look as friends posted random moons in chats.

Facebook recently announced the Easter egg is no longer required. Now anyone can enable Messenger's dark mode without unlocking it first. Why use dark mode? Not only is using a dark mode easier on your eyes, according to Google it can save battery life.

Dark Mode looks so much better. 

Facebook

Turning on dark mode in Messenger only takes a couple of taps: 

  • Open Facebook Messenger and tap on your profile icon in the top-left corner.
  • The Dark Mode toggle will be the first option under your profile photo.
  • Turn Dark Mode on and watch as all of the white is instantly replaced with black.

If you don't have Dark Mode quite yet, you can wait until Facebook fully rolls out the feature to everyone, or you can try to send the crescent moon emoji (🌙) in a conversation to unlock the formerly hidden feature.

To change back to the lighter version of Messenger, just repeat the above steps and turn Dark Mode off.

Watch this: Deactivating your Facebook account doesn't stop data collection