Beta versions of WhatsApp for Android often reveal the new features and improvements that are in development. The latest beta has now been submitted and version 2.19.82 reveals that a dark mode is being developed for the Android app. This feature is obviously not available for everyone just yet.
There has been sort of a dark mode awakening among app developers over the past couple of months. Many popular apps have been updated with support for the darker theme. Facebook-owned WhatsApp is evidently making a similar move.
Since the feature is under development, it’s not immediately available for everyone. The folks at WABetaInfo spotted this development in the latest beta release of the app. The mode has only been implemented in the Settings menu so far.
So while there are screenshots of the dark theme being applied to the Settings menu, we don’t get to see any chat windows with the dark theme, because that hasn’t been enabled as yet. WhatsApp might do that in the coming beta builds of the Android app.
As for when the dark mode is going to be released to the public, well that might take some time, but at least users can now rest assured that this will happen sooner rather than later.