Phones are only slowly getting updated to Android 10, which is the first iteration of the OS that introduced a proper system-wide dark theme. That’s why developers are only slowly adding the eye-soothing mode to their applications, but now a popular sales platform is finally on board with a new color variation: eBay. Version 6.1.1.20 is currently rolling out on the Play Store and gives some people access to a new dark theme.
Head to Settings -> Theme, choose an option, et voilà: dark mode.
When you download that version of eBay, tap the hamburger menu in the top left corner, head to Settings, and see if you have a new Theme entry under General. In there, you can activate an option of your choice: Always light, always dark, only dark in Battery Saver mode, or follow the system default. For me, light mode was activated by default. If theming isn’t available to you yet, you’ll have to be patient — eBay is rolling out the change in stages, as company executive Bradford Shellhammer shared on Twitter.
Hey folks! We are ramping dark mode this month and next. It’s device-setting and excited to see you talking about it. Let us know what you think?
— Bradford Shellhammer (@youngbradford) May 18, 2020
In dark mode, the app uses an extremely dimmed gray tone for backgrounds — HEX value #171717, to be specific. The search bar and some buttons sport a brighter gray, and the accent colors have been reduced to pastels to avoid jarring contrasts. That’s not true for the logo, campaign banners on the homepage, and product images, but all in all, it looks like a great implementation that’s good at portraying information hierarchy.
Other than the dark mode, you might also notice that there have been some general improvements to iconography and fonts, along with coloring the navigation bar background in accordance with the theme you’ve chosen. These changes have already been part of version 6.0.1.15 back in April.
Old interface to the left, new interface to the right.
eBay 6.1.1.20 is currently rolling to the Play Store, but you can also get it over at APK Mirror. Keep in mind that there are some server-side dependencies on top of the correct APK, so you might still have to be patient until you see the change.
