In which year did WhatsApp introduce dark mode?

WhatsApp introduced dark mode in 2020. The company officially announced the feature on March 3, 2020, beginning its rollout for iPhone and Android users.

Dark mode changed WhatsApp’s familiar bright interface to a darker color palette designed for low-light use. WhatsApp said its designers focused especially on readability and information hierarchy, choosing colors intended to reduce eye fatigue while keeping chats and controls easy to distinguish. On supported devices, the feature could follow the phone’s system-wide appearance setting.

The timing can cause confusion because dark mode had been tested in beta versions before its broad public release. Testing and official introduction are not the same event, so 2020 is the standard answer for when WhatsApp introduced the feature. Another common mix-up is assuming that dark mode launched simultaneously on every device and platform; the initial announcement covered iPhone and Android, while other versions received dark styling separately or later.