Oreo update will strip Night Mode from Sony smartphones

If you own a smartphone in the Sony Xperia XA1 lineup and enjoy the Night Mode feature, we unfortunately have some bad news for you: the upcoming Oreo update for your device will strip out Night Mode.

The Night Mode feature built into the Nougat version of Sony’s Android skin for the XA1 lineup cuts down on blue light to make viewing the phone display more comfortable at night time. The popular contention is that straining your eyes looking at blue light makes it harder for you to fall asleep. In response, many popular apps cut out most of the blue light either by a manual setting or automatically at sunset, depending on the user’s choice.

Sony built the feature right into the operating system for the XA1 series, eliminating the need for users to install a third-party app. However, once users upgrade to Oreo and lose the feature, they’ll have to turn to third-party apps once again.

Sony knows this and even says as much in a Twitter conversation with a user, which is where the news originated that the company will remove the feature. You can see the relevant parts of that conversation below.

Since the XA1 line of Sony smartphones are the only devices that have the Night Mode feature, and the Twitter message states that the company has no plans to add the functionality into Oreo variants in the future, this pretty much spells the end for Night Mode across the entire Sony lineup.

XA1 users who are disappointed to see this feature vanish should check the Google Play Store for a third-party solution, or consider looking into other devices that have a similar function baked in, like the OnePlus 5T and the Samsung Galaxy S8.