I’m on Apple and I couldn’t find the option to switch to dark mode.
Overall the app is looking more polished and easier to read and navigate.
Sadly you can’t pay from spaces, which seems such an obvious thing to setup.
1 Like
Nicely done Starling, genuinely was optimistic Monzo would get there first. I feel like scales are starting to ever so slightly start to tip away from Monzo for me. Bills pots is the main draw for me now
6 Likes
The most concrete thing I’ve seen to date about this tweeted today actually, perhaps they’re finally getting round to making it happen…
3 Likes
Hopefully not long until I can enable it on my phone then 
still hate that stupid shelf at the bottom which blinds me everytime I open the app.
I am 
, updated today but don’t see dark mode yet 
I know. Same over here. Such a shame
2 Likes
I am not a big fan of dark mode 
, still interested to test it 
2 Likes
I’m the polar opposite. I love dark mode
4 Likes
Click Profile pic > Settings > App Theme
2 Likes
I had to Google what dynamic type was on iPhone as they’ve enabled that on all the screens in the app.
1 Like
This would check out. iOS 7, with it’s mostly white redesign, was released in 2013 so it would make sense that as soon as work started on iOS 8 they were already thinking about dark mode!
1 Like
Another great accessibility feature, basically it helps you make all text larger or smaller (scaled by the system) so it can be read more easily.
1 Like
Yeah I agree. Bit surprised it went out like this.
Dark mode isn’t an accessibility feature at all. The accessibility inverted colour mode works fine with Starling.
3 Likes
These are all good things to be considering, from an accessibility standpoint, but I would also argue that it’s forgivable to launch the feature early for people who just prefer the way dark mode looks (but have 20-20 vision) and then slowly work out the kinks over time.
Starling have shown over the last year or two that they do continue to tweak elements of the app regularly, especially to improve visibility and legibility, so I would expect them to do the same with dark mode.
Given the fact they have chosen to implement dark mode with a settings toggle (to allow for system mode, or forced light/dark mode) then it’s also not as much of a problem as if they simply mirrored the system setting. If their dark mode doesn’t work well for someone and their personal circumstances, they can change the setting to forced light-mode and the app will behave the same as before. In this way, no workflow, choice or feature is being removed from the user. NatWest, to give them credit, have also implemented dark mode the same way. Amex have chosen to always follow the system.
In contrast, as a user who generally has my phone set to system-level dark mode all the time, when I open the Monzo app I am practically blinded by a bright white interface with no way to do anything about it except use system-wide invert colours (which I don’t use). This is why I have previously said I’d like Monzo to launch their in-progress dark mode now as an alpha feature in Monzo Labs. From an accessibility standpoint, it might be terrible, but from my perspective it would offer me (and users like me) instant value.
8 Likes
That’s fair - but if it gives me potentially new features more quickly at no “expense” (i.e. trade-off) then I’ll prefer faster, if imperfect, shipping. It’s one reason I like Monzo Labs.
I recognise not everyone will, of course (and I run beta software on my main devices so clearly I trend towards one extreme of this scale).
This is why having a toggle here is a good move from Starling. You can try it and, if you hate it, there isn’t any issue with turning it off.
I have slightly higher standards for whole-app redesigns which potentially break features or worsen usability. It’s better if they are thought through first before seeing the light of day.
5 Likes
It has 3 out of 4, I would say that was pretty close…
2 Likes
While not originally marketed or conceived as an accessibility feature, or solely for accessibility, it is nonetheless particularly useful for people with certain types of visual disabilities as it can be much easier to read light text on dark backgrounds for those people.
It therefore has an accessibility role, so ideally dark mode app design should take that into account.
3 Likes
I know nothing about accessibility, nor dark mode design principles.
But if an app developer has to essentially choose a new colour palette for dark mode, how much more effort would it be to research a colour palette which also conforms to established accessibility thinking, and just choose from the better palette?
4 Likes
But people expect it to be a duck. It’s quackers.
1 Like