During the Android 7.0 Nougat Developer Preview, Google experimented with a system-wide Night Mode that offered a number of improvements to compatible Nexus phones to allow them to work better at night and in other low-light situations. Unfortunately for tinkerers (but completely understandable for a variety of reasons), that mode was hidden in the run-up to Nougat's release — but with a little help you can get at least some of those features back.
While the overall dark theme is not available, Nexus devices running Nougat (5X, 6, 6P, 9, Pixel C) can activate a handy blue light filter similar to the one found on the Galaxy Note 7. Here's how.
How to get Night Mode on Android 7.0 Nougat
- Open Google Play Store.
- Tap Search bar.
- Enter Night Mode Enabler. Press Install.
- Return to home screen.
- Pull down on Notification Shade.
- Pull down again to enter Quick Settings.
- Hold down on Settings icon (cog icon). You should feel a vibration and see a message saying, "Congrats! System UI Tuner has been added to Settings."
- Return to home screen.
- Open Night Mode Enabler app.
- Tap Enable Night Mode.
- Toggle Night Mode to on.
- Toggle Adjust tint to enable blue-light filter.
That's it! Now you have what's remaining of Night Mode in Nougat. This certainly isn't the ambitious system-wide dark theme that many people wanted when it was first previewed, but this is really useful nonetheless.
