Phone applications that use black instead of white use less battery life

Image: lili sams / mashable

We now have evidence that apps use up less battery life of your phone when they use darker colors, such as black and gray.

In a recent Android Dev Summit session (via SlashGear), Google revealed what we suspected for a long time: the colors used in apps have a direct impact on the battery life of the smartphone, while the white or more bright colors are a bigger drain.

With the help of an original Pixel phone, Google tested different ways in which the phone was draining the life of its battery. Brightness was, of course, one of the most obvious factors; everyone knows that the brighter the screen, the faster your battery runs out.

However, the most informative news of the session relate to the use of color. As many of us who already know the technical details of a phone's display know, the phone's night mode (if there is one) helps preserve battery life.

Although this is less visible on phones with LCD screens where the entire screen is backlit, the energy savings of phones with OLED screens (Samsung phones, Pixels, iPhone X, XS, XS Max, etc.) are considerably more important.

Indeed, OLED screens are not backlit, unlike LCDs, with a uniform brightness illuminating all pixels. Instead, each pixel in an OLED display has an enabled and disabled state. As such, the pixel does not turn on and uses energy only if it is a color other than black. A black pixel is "off" and that is why blacks are so deep on OLEDs as LCDs – as they are not even turned on.

So it's no surprise that night / dark applications, which often use more black or dark gray, reduce the speed at which your phone's battery runs out.

I encourage you to switch to night mode (if available) not only because your phone will last longer, but also because it's more pleasing to the eyes. Twitter with a dark theme is less blinding than a mostly white day theme, especially when you look at it in the dark or in dimly lit places (bars, restaurants, etc.).

For its part, Google has not really helped preserve the battery life in Android with the hardware design of all its applications. In its attempt to create a consistent and modern flat user interface for all of its applications and services, the Android application creators have gone too far with "negative" white space. As a result, their applications consume more power than necessary.

For Google and Android app developers, takeaway is simple: use more black and darker colors. It's good for saving energy and the dark mode seems much better.

Image: lili sams / mashable

But it's not just Android phones that can benefit from applying black in apps. IOS developers should also do it. With the iPhone X, XS and XS Max all using OLED displays, you have the ability to create beautiful apps that are also good for battery life.

As a person who uses dark mode as much as possible in apps like Twitter and Apollo, and who uses a black screen background on my home screen, I constantly hope that more apps adopt the aesthetic. Now that there is evidence that the battery lasts longer, there is even more reason to make dark mode an option.

If Apple launches and takes the lead with the dark mode in its default iOS applications, it will encourage other application developers to do the same. Apple has already taken modest steps with the dark mode on macOS Mojave and it's glorious.

It's time for the company to do the same with iOS. It always seems strange to me that some applications iOS are dark (clock, watch, compass, activity, calculator) but that others are not it. Maybe in iOS 13, Apple will finally put in dark mode all applications. If there is one thing that iOS 13 should have, it is this.