September 2019 was a great month for the folks over at Android. Android 10 was announced and it even highlighted one of the most important features of this version of Android. The system-wide dark mode has finally reached Android, and this time it is official. Several months after the original announcement, a number of Google’s applications have slowly started to adopt a darker theme all by themselves. Even some very popular apps have decided to follow this trend. For example, WhatsApp took a lot of time, while apps such as Facebook have not joined on the dark mode trend. That is, for now. Because of all these developments, we can overlook a less popular app from not adopting the upcoming dark mode right away, especially if the app in question lacks the amount of UI elements that can actually be successfully darkened. Nevertheless, we already know the next application from Google that is going to be on board with the well-known and incredibly popular dark mode. Can you guess? Well, you do not have to. Because we are going to tell you: it is Google Earth.
Google Earth has added some new strings in the 9.3.19.8. These all seem to indicate that Google is currently preparing a dark theme. This dark theme will be applied to the few themeable user interaction areas. The full lines of code that Google has inserted can be seen below:
<string name=”settings_darkmode”>Dark theme</string>
<string name=”settings_darkmode_label_off”>Light</string>
<string name=”settings_darkmode_label_on”>Dark</string>
<string name=”settings_darkmode_label_system”>System</string>
<string name=”settings_darkmode_summary”>Reduce glare and improve night viewing</string>
As can be seen in the strings above, Google Earth will add a dark theme to the app in a short time. Users will be able to set the new Dark theme, or stick with the regular Light theme. Users will even be able to follow the system settings These changes will be applied to ears where there is user interaction, such as info cards and the side pane.
