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November 2018 security patch turns on night mode when you activate battery saver
July 28, 2025
With theNovember 2018 security patchnow available for Pixel, Nexus, and Essential devices,Android Policefound a weird change with how Battery Saver andNight Modeinteract with each other.
It was found that switching Battery Saver on now forces Night Mode to also turn on, regardless of whether you set Night Mode to always be off in developer options. You can still manually turn Night Mode off, but it will turn back on the next time you enable Battery Saver.
Android Policealso noticed that turning on Battery Saver sets Night Mode toAlways on, even though Night Mode was previously set toAlways off. Even stranger, turning Battery Saver off reverts Night Mode back toAlways off.
This means that Battery Saver now overrides Night Mode, which might be a good thing if you want to save battery. During its Android Dev Summit,Googleconfirmed that blackputs significantly less strainon the battery than white does. This might be why Google continues to update its apps with dark modes, even though the company’sMaterial Designinitiative uses white as the primary color.
As such, it would make sense for Battery Saver to automatically turn Night Mode on. Then again,Android Policepointed out that Night Mode within developer options only controls the notification drop-down; it does not control the app drawer.
On a related note, it looks like the November security patch lets you turn Night Mode on based on the time of day. The setting might not be working as advertised at the time of this writing, however.
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