When manufacturers started to introduce dark modes to their phones for the battery and eye saving characteristics there was bound to be some unexpected flow on effects due to improper implementation. Samsung seem to have found it with their system-wide night mode triggering Android Auto into night mode also.
For some users (who use Android Auto on their phone) this may be suitable, but for users who have an Android Auto stereo – not so much, as evidenced by the discussion on the Google product forums. It’s also interesting to note that Samsung have called it Night Mode, not dark mode like other manufacturers. Seemingly they have a switch that triggers Night Mode manually with associated flow on triggers for some apps versus a permanent dark theme for the UI.
For those who don’t know, Android Auto night mode not only converts the screen to a “dark theme” it drops the brightness as well to ensure its not distracting for drivers which means in full sunlight it’s been difficult to see!
Android Police are reporting that the developer mode in Android Auto is also overridden by this system wide mode, making the only solution to disable One UI night mode if the resulting follow on effects are a problem for you.
You would expect that Samsung would be working on a fix for this – or is it Google that needs to fix it? Either way we hope that both involved parties are talking to each other to provide a quick solution to users.
They have fixed it with latest patch allowing night mode to be turned on and off and sunset and sunrise.
Using pixel experience on my Xiaomi mi 6. Android pie. Dark mode on the mi 6 triggers Dark mode on android auto and blacks out maps. (Maps are in night mode)
It does not dim screen though. Screen will dim when it actually gets dark.
It looks to be only intended as a power-saving feature on OLED screens by Google. Which is great, as reading light text on dark backgrounds isn’t good for the eyes anyway. Samsung should never have called this “Night mode” in the first place.