Dark Theme won't return in Android 6.0 Marshmallow

In one of our first “Diving into M” posts we took a look at the new dark theme that had made its way into developer options for those using the Android M developer preview. Unfortunately the theme was removed for the second build, and didn’t reappear in the third and final developer build either. But what about Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s commercial release? Is there hope of the dark theme making a comeback? As it turns out, no.

While Google hasn’t formally talked about the dark theme, Issue 2657 on Google’s Issue Tracker talks about the dark theme and how it is missing from later M builds:

Please bring back the Dark Theme In the Android M,this time with pitch Black color applicable for displays like the notification center,title bar & app drawer.

The status of the issue has since been marked as Acknowledged, alongside the comment:

Thanks for the suggestion. Our development team has looked into this feature request. This will not be included in the M release. However, this may be considered for future releases.

If you were among those who were hoping to ditch the light theme on your stock Android device, this news probably comes as a bit of a disappoint. Honestly, seems like a pretty simple thing to add, and a dark theme that is expanded to the notification shade and other areas would especially be useful when using your phone at night, such doing a little night browsing before going to bed. For now though, stock Android users will just have to live without.

Were you hoping that dark theme would make it into Android 6.0? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.