Google app and Google Assistant dark mode finally begins rolling out

Google Assistant on Pixel 3a
Google Assistant on Pixel 3a (Image credit: Ara Wagoner / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • The dark theme for the Google app and Google Assistant has started rolling out.
  • Google is enabling the dark theme for select users via a server-side update currently, so it will take some time for it to become widely available.
  • Google Podcasts hasn't been updated with the dark theme yet.

The long-awaited dark mode for Gmail and the Play Store finally began rolling out earlier this week. A dark theme option is now being rolled out for the Google App and Google Assistant as well. While Google had rolled out a dark theme for the Google app for a small number of users in June this year, this is the first time that the Google Assistant is getting a dark theme.

As reported by a few Reddit users (via XDA Developers), Google is currently enabling dark theme for the Google App and Google Assistant via a server-side update. For now, it appears the update is only rolling out to a small number of users in the U.S., UK, and Australia.

Similar to the dark theme option for Gmail and the Play Store, Google will likely begin a worldwide rollout of the Google app and Google Assistant dark mode sometime in the coming weeks. Interestingly, the Google App and Google Assistant dark theme option is showing up for a few users running Android Pie as well. They are able to choose between light and dark themes and can also allow the Battery Saver feature to change the theme automatically.

Surprisingly, however, the Google Podcasts service within the Google app still has the material white theme instead of the new dark theme available elsewhere in the app.

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Babu Mohan
News Writer
3 Comments
  • I just ca... I mean, i am happy about this a *normal* amount. The slow rollout is super annoying though, as usual. And why wouldn't it be available on pie? All the others are.
  • It's just a crappy grey theme. Not only it's not a real dark theme, it doesn't even use Google's own colour guidelines.
    Google really couldn't do proper design even if their lives depended on it.
  • Ah c'mon, man. I'm all about the #000000 life, and I'm almost as cantankerous as you lol. But this marks an end to 5 years of blinding white unreadable Google apps. Let's just take the win for now, we can complain it's not good enough later. That said and as an aside, the yubikey app was just updated and you can now choose your theme from light, dark or AMOLED, that's the correct way to do it.