Add system dark mode by amcolash · Pull Request #1119 · coredevices/PebbleOS

amcolash · 2026-04-19T07:25:12Z

Hey pebble friends! I recently started using my pebble again in preparation for my new PT2 arriving soon. I noticed that using the watch at nighttime was really bright and noticed how nice the settings menu w/ black background was. Since PebbleOS is now open source, I decided to try adding in a dark mode. So far is looking really good and will hopefully be a nice feature for people.

Not sure if there are any contribution guidelines I need to keep in mind, but happy to help get this through however you all might think is best. I used claude for portions of the logic, but wrote a significant portion on my own as well. This PR does cover a lot of files, but commits should roughly line up with separate potions of code changes. Happy to split things up if it is too much in one PR though.

Technical Details:

There are 3 new helper functions added to src/fw/shell/system_theme.c
- system_theme_is_dark_mode()
- system_theme_get_fg_color()
- system_theme_get_bg_color()
The Settings -> Display/Theme page (dependent on theme support, falls back to display) has new options for Dark Mode: Off / On / Auto.
- Dark mode is turned off by default
- "Auto" mode uses the ambient light sensor to determine if dark mode should be enabled
- The settings page order was changed slightly after the screenshot was taken
Most of the changes in this PR are changing colors from hardcoded values to the above functions for fg/bg colors.

These changes should be scoped to pebbleos with a check that I think should prevent the default values going to 3rd party apps. If it seems like there is community interest, it should be pretty simple to roll out to application developers later on.

Below are screenshots of many parts of the ui that have been touched. I did a pretty thorough check through all pages and I think it is in a pretty decent spot. The colors are washed in a few from QEMU + backlight dimming.

I still have a little bit of testing on a few more places, but pretty close to ready for merging once approved. Haven't looked too deeply at round/new/etc hardware, but I think a lot of the spots should be decent. Thanks all, love that pebble is back and so happy to be able to contribute! 😁 🪨

gmarull · 2026-04-20T08:14:18Z

thanks for the contribution, please, make sure to make changes following contributing guidelines (see other PRs/commits as a reference)

jplexer

This is awesome, but please, as Gerard said, make the commits fit the guidelines. Thank you!

amcolash · 2026-04-20T16:03:39Z

I think I got all of the commits signed off/co-authored now.

Only question I have is if I should move this preference to the "theme" section of the settings menu, or keep it in "display". UX-wise, it makes more sense in theme, but not all devices have the theme section. Any watch can support dark/light mode, but definitely not thoroughly tested on them.

Otherwise, I am feeling pretty good with the state of things. Thanks all!

jplexer · 2026-04-20T16:14:43Z

Yes, in "Theme" would be good! I dont remember why we disabled it on some builds (maybe @gmarull can tell more?)

regarding your commits, you gotta change the title as well :( the format is "area: change"

amcolash · 2026-04-20T19:36:05Z

Sorry about the commit message format! Hopefully it is correct this time 🤞

For the option placement: I added some conditional logic to move the option to the "Theme" menu when applicable and a fall-back to "Display", when CAPABILITY_HAS_THEMING is not set.

gmarull · 2026-04-21T19:31:45Z

Please, make sure to organize commits properly. We do not allow reverts of something added in the same PR. Just squash things, group them in logical chunks.

gmarull · 2026-04-21T19:32:51Z

something's wrong if we have 17 commits and such a small delta:

amcolash · 2026-04-22T21:12:25Z

Thanks for the commit feedback. I primarily work on repos where the entire PR gets squashed on merge - so order, reverts, etc don't matter much.

I have logically split up the commits by section of the code and each should build on its own. Hopefully this matches what you are looking for.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

amcolash · 2026-04-25T07:07:10Z

Quick update on my side: I have fixed up the build + test matrix on my local fork!

gmarull

we also need to think about exposing this to apps/watchfaces, so they can also support light/dark mode based on user prefs.

gmarull · 2026-04-27T12:14:42Z

+#if CAPABILITY_HAS_AMBIENT_LIGHT_SENSOR
+  DarkModeAuto = 2,  // Follows the ambient light sensor; dark mode when ambient light is low
+#endif


I'd personally remove the auto mode tied to ambient light. I think this makes sense on *LED type displays, where black pixels do not emit or emit less light, but on e-paper, backlight has no relation with the displayed color. So IMHO, it's more an aesthetics preference on e-paper.

I do see your point for actual light emitted. My reasoning for this was not so much about light emitted, but more about legibility. It is usually much easier to read black text, white bg in direct sunshine. At night time, white text on dark bg is easier on eyes plus easier to read for me. Although it might not be for everyone, I do think there is a valid use case here.

maybe it could be time based?

gmarull · 2026-04-27T12:15:40Z

+}
+
+bool system_theme_is_dark_mode(void) {
+  // Dark mode is only supported on color platforms, so treat all non-color platforms as light mode


dark mode could still be supported on B/W, right?

Yes it could definitely be supported on B/W. I have not tested any of this on B/W at all, so this decision was to limit scope of the changes to color watches. We could add it for all devices, but regardless, I think this is very much in a "Beta" position right now.

gmarull · 2026-04-27T12:17:53Z

      prv_legacy_app_mode_menu_push((SettingsDisplayData*)context);
      break;
+#endif
+#if !CAPABILITY_HAS_THEMING


CAPABILITY_HAS_THEMING hides a primitive theming system which this PR seems to improve, can we remove flag entirely, remove dead code and just offer this feature by default?

On all color systems, yes. However, maybe we still need the flag for B/W watches? I suppose there could always be the themes menu and optionally have the "accent color" option on color-only devices.

#if PBL_BW or #if !PBL_COLOR

jplexer

I like this PR, but please look at the comments re: enabling has_theming again + exposing the apis publically

gmarull requested review from ericmigi and jplexer April 20, 2026 10:43

jplexer approved these changes Apr 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch 3 times, most recently from a57c3a0 to c1f2878 Compare April 20, 2026 16:01

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch 4 times, most recently from 01513f0 to 43c7475 Compare April 20, 2026 18:59

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch 3 times, most recently from b020276 to 1516500 Compare April 21, 2026 19:22

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch from 1516500 to af723f4 Compare April 22, 2026 21:09

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch 9 times, most recently from d603ba3 to 21d6d6b Compare April 24, 2026 20:11

fw/shell: Add DarkMode preference + stubs

7424988

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch from 21d6d6b to 68577df Compare April 24, 2026 21:12

amcolash and others added 2 commits April 24, 2026 22:18

fw/shell: Add dark mode system_theme functions + stubs

604a6af

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

fw/applib/ui: Theme-aware defaults for applib ui components

f54cfd4

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch from 68577df to 261c7d9 Compare April 25, 2026 05:29

amcolash and others added 3 commits April 24, 2026 22:45

fw/apps/system/settings: Apply dark mode to settings and add toggle

59bdd0d

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

fw/apps/system: Apply dark mode to system apps

1bf7bbb

Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

fw: Apply dark mode to timeline and notifications

3a1ec48

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew McOlash <amcolash@gmail.com>

amcolash force-pushed the dark_mode branch from 261c7d9 to 3a1ec48 Compare April 25, 2026 06:02

gmarull reviewed Apr 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

gmarull requested a review from jplexer April 27, 2026 12:19

jplexer reviewed May 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

s00se mentioned this pull request May 24, 2026

Dark mode #1362

Closed

1 task

Conversation

amcolash commented Apr 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

gmarull commented Apr 20, 2026

Uh oh!

jplexer left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

amcolash commented Apr 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

jplexer commented Apr 20, 2026

Uh oh!

amcolash commented Apr 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

gmarull commented Apr 21, 2026

Uh oh!

gmarull commented Apr 21, 2026

Uh oh!

amcolash commented Apr 22, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

amcolash commented Apr 25, 2026

Uh oh!

gmarull left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

gmarull Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

amcolash Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

gmarull Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

gmarull Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

amcolash Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

gmarull Apr 27, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

amcolash Apr 27, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jplexer May 7, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jplexer left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

amcolash commented Apr 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading

amcolash commented Apr 20, 2026 •

edited

Loading

amcolash commented Apr 20, 2026 •

edited

Loading

amcolash commented Apr 22, 2026 •

edited

Loading

amcolash Apr 27, 2026 •

edited

Loading