Unlock YouTube's Hidden Dark Mode to Save Your Eyes

Megalith

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I get the feeling that there are already extensions for this, but I thought I’d post this anyway because it is a little more than that: what this tweak actually does is give you a glimpse at YouTube’s new UI, which Google is probably introducing soon. It just so happens to include a “dark mode” option that you can access by hitting your profile photo and clicking the appropriate setting. If it’s not working for you, it’s probably because you aren’t on the main YouTube site (it didn’t work for me when I was on my subscriptions page).

Enabling the mode is fairly simple, provided you're using an up-to-date Chrome browser. You'll need to access the browser's developer tools and paste in some text from the Tweet above, refresh your browser, and then toggle the mode on in the menu you get when you click on your avatar. You can easily turn the mode off, too, though you only have to use the console command once. It's an easy, semi-official way to save you some eye strain. Even though Dark Mode hasn't been announced by YouTube yet, it could be a great regular feature that may not require all the extra steps in the near future. Why not give it a try now?
 
Save power too. I think it takes more energy for an lcd to show all white vs dark colors.
 
Save power too. I think it takes more energy for an lcd to show all white vs dark colors.

That's OLED displays, black pixels are actually "off" whereas white ones are "on". LCD displays with LED backlights don't have appreciable power use difference between a totally black or white scene since the LED backlight is always on. (If you have an LED TV with "local dimming" backlighting based on the brightness of items on screen you may save some power though.)
 
I hope it's just an alternative. Bright text on dark backgrounds wrecks havoc on my eyes (brain more probably). It's the main reason I only glimpse through the main page on HardOCP. I cannot look at the text here for too long. And no, reversing colours or overriding the colours in the browser makes the page unusable for other reasons. If YouTube goes Dark without a way to choose and being able to get something that looks right, then I will have to cut down YouTube usage too... Although... that might be a good thing. :)
 
you have to restart the browser not reload! or atleast i had to
 
And if you're running anonymized and blocking cookies and the like it won't work either.
 
you have to restart the browser not reload! or atleast i had to
Restart in Chrome, Reload in Edge
Is it just me or are there no real instructions for how to do this?
It's pretty clear, you open dev console(F12) in most cases, type into the console
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE"
Which adds the information to your youtube cookie so when you reload the page/restart the browser you're moved into their ui beta?
After that you just click on your portrait and dark mode is in the drop down menu.
 
Ive been using Magic Actions extension for chrome for a while now and this is probably my fav feature. Dark mode, auto HD, auto wide, disable annotations..etc.etc. Good simple program.
 
Restart in Chrome, Reload in Edge

It's pretty clear, you open dev console(F12) in most cases, type into the console
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE"
Which adds the information to your youtube cookie so when you reload the page/restart the browser you're moved into their ui beta?
After that you just click on your portrait and dark mode is in the drop down menu.

That got me closer, now I just need to find the drop down menu to change it!
 
A week ago I turned it off because i could only use it when not logged in to my account. left them a message that it only worked for me when not logged in. Might be why they released the string to manually add it. but could just be a coincidence.
 
Save power too. I think it takes more energy for an lcd to show all white vs dark colors.

Actually it's exactly the opposite: with an LCD, when it's showing all white (the backlight is coming through perfectly clear) that means every pixel is off - OLED technology (whatever variation) is when pixels are solid black when they're off. People get this backwards 24/7 so it's no real big surprise I suppose, but "brighter" on an LCD (not counting the backlight level) means the pixels are using less energy - in fact the most power usage with an LCD occurs when you have it displaying pure black because that's when you have the backlight on using power and every individual pixel is using maximum power as well.

With OLED darker is the key to saving power whenever possible.

As for the whole "eye strain" issue I just don't get it: been staring at everything from pure monochrome to grayscale to Hercules 16 color VGA through huge CRTs and TVs and HDTVs and Plasmas and IPS and OLED and whatever display technology mankind has ever been able to create and I've never had "eye strain" or whatever people wish to call it or however they wish to describe it. Same thing with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: been typing on keyboards since the early 1970s from IBM Selectrics to "chiclet" membranes (Timex-Sinclair 1000, anyone?) to whatever the hell scissor-shit my current keyboard has and a lot of mechanicals in between too and I've never had issues and I'm on a keyboard daily for hours and hours for decades and decades.

Guess I'm just not normal, thankfully. :D
 
Restart in Chrome, Reload in Edge

It's pretty clear, you open dev console(F12) in most cases, type into the console
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE"
Which adds the information to your youtube cookie so when you reload the page/restart the browser you're moved into their ui beta?
After that you just click on your portrait and dark mode is in the drop down menu.

its not like i didn't figure it out! i think saying i restarted my browser would pretty much mean that was my only hurdle. I have had this running for months. but i turned it off and wrote a note to them about it not working when you change accounts.
 
I've been using stylish to get dark modes for websites. The "Youtube Black and Red" style is easier on the eyes than the white font that youtube is using.
 
This should have been added YEARS ago. WTF took them so long?
I heard they're going to disable unauthorized people from using this later on as they want to make this a Youtube Red only feature for more money. No idea if that's true, though it sounded plausible enough.
 
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