Google Chat gets a dark theme for its website and PWA app

Google’s Chat service is one of the last Google services without a dark theme for the website and PWA. At least, was one of the last services. An update to Google Chat with the dark theme is on the way, Google states in a post on its Workspace blog. The update should be available to everyone within 15 days of August 20.

Google Chat

Google rolled out the dark theme to Google Chat’s Android and iOS apps a year ago. When the search giant would update its web application and Progressive Web App (PWA), it remained unknown at the time. We now know that the update was low on Google’s priority list, and that it took a year to start rolling out to browser and desktop users. Google says in a short blog post that the new dark theme should lead to a better ‘viewing experience’. After all, the dark theme ensures that you are less bothered by the brightness of your screen.

Similar to the mobile variants of Google Chat, the search giant has given the web and PWA versions of Chat a dark gray background. Google also uses green as an accent color to indicate which conversation is open. The latter is not new, by the way, Chat’s light theme uses the accent color for the same UI element.

Once the dark theme is available in your Google Chat, you can access the updated Chat settings by clicking the gear icon. In the settings you can, just as was possible before the update, enable or disable desktop notifications. In addition, from now on you will find the setting for the theme.

Rollout dark theme

Google says on its blog that the dark theme is currently being rolled out to Chat users. The feature should be available to everyone within 15 days of the rollout, which started on August 20.

Previously, Google rolled out an update to Chat’s search function, and announced it was shifting users from Hangouts to Google Chat. In June, the company also announced that Workspace – the successor to G Suite – would be available to everyone. Do you ever use Chat, or did Google make the mistake of replacing Hangouts with Chat? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.