Safari finally gets more dark mode options for your iPhone, making nighttime web surfing more convenient

Not all websites are created equal, which is why Safari doesn’t apply dark mode to every web page you visit when your iPhone is system-wide dark. But in the latest update to Safari, Apple is giving its web browser more options to automatically apply dark mode to certain website content without the need for extensions like Noir.

While Safari’s toolbars and unique UI elements are dark mode-compliant, Apple gives web designers the freedom to implement dark themes to match the look and feel of the system on your device. Some web apps have implemented adaptive themes, but most web pages on the web will still blind you with bright lights even if the Safari user interface is dimmed.

To help address this issue, Safari 16.4, which is available for iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, and macOS Big Sur and later, adds dark mode support for plain text documents, which are the brightest files on the web thanks to their plain white backgrounds. and black text. When dark mode is enabled,. txt and other supported text files are switched to dark background and white text. This change also works in third-party iOS browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.

It’s just a tiny piece of the puzzle for creating more dark themed web content, but it’s very welcome. Apart from files. txt, I was also able to get some files. 1st,. dtd. log. info,. sgml. srt,. tex and. text to switch to dark view, but I haven’t had the same success for. xml. rtf. html and other types of files.

If you don’t already have iOS 16.4, you can use a Safari extension like Noir or Neo Noir to automatically switch most websites to a dark theme when system-wide dark mode is enabled on your iPhone.