Top 3 Ways to Use Google Docs in Dark Mode on Chrome

Google Docs is my favorite word processor, period. Of course, it doesn’t come close to Microsoft Word in terms of functionality. But since I hardly do anything fancy with my documents, Google Docs is more than enough. It’s also well optimized and works great on my Chrome browser. That said, there is one thing that has bothered me for years: the lack of dark mode functionality in the Google Docs web app.

Don’t be disappointed, however. Google Docs might not have a native way to view documents in dark mode, but you can instead use workarounds in Chrome to force the feature on. They are not perfect, nor are they the most practical. But they should help you anytime you want to work on a document late at night without having your eyes blinded. Let’s start.

1. Activate Chrome Flag

Chrome supports a dark theme on Windows 10 and macOS – we all know that. But the browser also comes with an experimental feature (or flag) that lets you forcefully display all web pages in dark mode. It’s still a work in progress, but it should do a decent job of making Google Docs dark mode.

Start by copying the following URL to a new Chrome tab and press Enter to bring up the experimental “Force dark mode for web content” flag.

chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark

Open the drop-down menu next to “Force Dark Mode for Web Content” and select the option labeled On.

Click Relaunch to restart the web browser (you may lose any unsaved work!). You can then view all websites in full dark mode.

With Google Docs, I found the Experimental Flag to do a great job of emulating dark mode. Fonts were visible, images appeared without weird color inversions, and the entire Google Docs user interface was easily navigable.

However, I had issues getting the blinking cursor to work in documents with white fonts. Since this represents most of the documents, the Experimental feature is primarily ideal for instances that involve reading rather than typing.

Anytime you want to turn off the experimental flag, just insert the address ‘chrome: // flags / # enable-force-dark’ in a new tab and then select Default next to Force dark mode for web content . You can also add the address to your favorites for faster access to the flag.

2. Use Dark Reader

Dark Reader ranks among the best dark mode extensions for Chrome. It does a great job of rendering sites in dark mode (even better than the experimental flag above) and is excellent in terms of performance. To make things even better, you have more flexibility on how the extension works on websites.

Download Dark Reader

Once you install the extension, you will see all websites in dark mode, including Google Docs. You can also use Alt + Shift + D (or Option + Shift + D on Mac) to quickly turn dark mode on or off.

You can also use the site list in Dark Reader settings to configure specific sites to display in dark mode. If you only want to use Google Docs in dark mode, add the address “docs.google.com” in the list under “Reverse list only” and you’re good to go. Cool stuff.

As for the overall Dark Mode experience, I had no issues using Dark Reader with Google Docs. Every element of the web application stood out clearly. The images I inserted into documents were not changed and there was no slowdown while working on documents. This is hands down the best Google Docs dark mode experience you can get right now.

But a word of warning: extensions can pose problems for your privacy. Use Chrome’s experimental dark mode indicator if you find this to be a problem.

The intelligent night owl

Whether you plan to use Chrome’s experimental Dark Mode indicator or the Dark Reader or Luna Reader browser extensions, you should have a better experience with Google Docs in the future. Those of you who prefer Google Docs’ native dark mode feature (don’t all of you?) Might want to keep your eyes peeled: Google Docs on Android recently received dedicated dark mode support. , and the web application could very well be on the next cards.