LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking platforms, with over 800 million members worldwide. However, unlike many other major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn’s parent company Microsoft Outlook, LinkedIn has yet to implement a dark mode user interface. This has left many LinkedIn users wondering—why doesn’t LinkedIn have a dark mode?
In this article, we’ll explore some of the potential reasons why LinkedIn still lacks a dark mode, including technical challenges, priorities and resources, user experience considerations, and monetization strategies. While LinkedIn has not provided an official explanation, we can make some educated guesses as to why this popularly requested feature has not yet come to fruition.
The Growing Popularity of Dark Mode
Over the past few years, dark mode has exploded in popularity across all types of digital interfaces. Dark mode displays content on a black or dark background, replacing the standard lighter background. This can help improve readability in low-light environments, reduce eye strain from bright screens, save battery life on devices with OLED displays, and simply provide an aesthetic preference for users.
When Apple released dark mode for iOS 13 in 2019, it kicked off a domino effect across apps and operating systems. Android 10 introduced a system-wide dark mode in the same year. Similarly, Google rolled out a dark theme for Chrome, Microsoft launched dark mode for Office, and Facebook dropped a darker look for its desktop site. Numerous studies have found that the majority of people prefer the look, feel, and utility of dark mode.
As more and more sites and apps unveil dark mode options, pressure mounts for lagging holdouts like LinkedIn to give users this choice. In fact, LinkedIn users have been persistently requesting dark mode for years on the platform’s feedback forums. Yet the professional social network still lacks this seemingly basic feature in late 2022.
The Technical Challenges of Implementing Dark Mode
One of the main reasons why LinkedIn may not have rolled out dark mode yet is due to the technical challenges involved. With a codebase as large and complex as LinkedIn’s, migrating the entire site’s front-end to a new design system is no small task.
To build dark mode properly, LinkedIn designers and engineers can’t just apply a simple filter or CSS toggle to invert site colors. Simply making fonts and backgrounds darker could render some imagery and videos unviewable. A thoughtful redesign is required to ensure all visual assets and components display correctly against darker backgrounds.
Additionally, a dark mode needs to be developed for both web and mobile platforms, adding further effort. Significant quality assurance and cross-browser/device testing is also needed to catch any rendering issues.
Overall, building and maintaining dark mode effectively requires substantially more development resources compared to a single light mode interface. As a result, LinkedIn team members may have been assigned to higher priority projects.
Concerns About Impacting Key Metrics
Some speculate that LinkedIn has been slow to adopt dark mode due to concerns over how it could impact key user metrics. For example, would engagement go down if users weren’t looking at a bright, high contrast interface?
LinkedIn heavily relies on advertising revenue, which depends on users actively engaging with in-feed sponsored content. If a darker design led to even minor dips in click-through or conversion rates, it could substantially affect LinkedIn’s bottom line.
Of course, dark mode could also have the opposite effect, increasing user satisfaction and retention. But like any major site redesign, unpredictability makes business stakeholders squeamish. LinkedIn may be hesitant to take a risk and fix something that isn’t broken—especially without thorough testing.
Prioritizing More Lucrative Product Developments
LinkedIn has limited resources, so product roadmaps focus on building features that drive company priorities. While dark mode has become table stakes for most social platforms, LinkedIn seems to be lagging in this area. But this may simply be a matter of prioritization based on return on investment.
For example, LinkedIn has been concentrating heavily on growing their three revenue streams:
1. Talent Solutions
This segment involves recruitment tools and job listings for employers and job seekers. Developing products here directly serves LinkedIn’s core professional user base.
2. Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn’s advertising team focuses on helping brands market to LinkedIn’s desirable Demographics. New ad formats likely convert better than visual tweaks.
3. Premium Subscriptions
LinkedIn’s premium tiers like Sales Navigator target converting free users into paying members. Adding dark mode doesn’t immediately boost subscriptions.
With so many areas ripe for revenue growth, dark mode may have fallen lower on LinkedIn’s priority list compared to other product investments.
Dark Mode’s Effects on Professional Branding
Some hypothesize that LinkedIn has intentionally held off on dark mode to better reinforce the platform’s professional branding. LinkedIn aims to stay visually distinguished from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
While other social platforms embrace darker looks, LinkedIn retains a relatively clean, visually business-focused interface. Bright whites and blues evoke professionalism, crispness, and clarity.
Of course, this is ultimately just speculation. Plenty of professional sites like Microsoft Outlook, Slack, and Apple Mail have adopted dark themes without undermining their brands. Still, LinkedIn may want to preserve its look and feel as distinctly professional and “business-like” for now.
When Will LinkedIn Finally Get Dark Mode?
The #1 question for many LinkedIn users is simple: When will dark mode finally arrive?
Based on gradual interface experiments and employee comments, it appears dark mode is on LinkedIn’s radar. But the company has provided no official timeline or announcement for its launch.
Some optimistically hoped to see dark mode in late 2021, corresponding with LinkedIn’s 20th anniversary. But 2022 is almost over and there are still no signs of it. Realistically, we may not see it until 2023 or later unless LinkedIn suddenly prioritizes its development.
Hopefully sooner rather than later, LinkedIn will meet user demand and launch dark mode for web, iOS and Android. But the company seems intent on taking its time and getting it right. For now, closing your eyes provides the only “dark mode” when browsing LinkedIn.
Workarounds to Enable Dark Mode for LinkedIn
Until LinkedIn officially supports dark mode, there are a few workarounds users can try to enable a makeshift dark theme:
Browser Extensions
Extensions like Dark Reader and Dark Mode work fairly well to invert colors and darken images on LinkedIn. Keep in mind performance can slow down.
Device-Level Dark Mode
On iOS 13+ or Android 10+, enable system-wide dark mode. This will cascade a darker look down to LinkedIn.
Private/Incognito Browsing
Using a private or incognito browser window will partially apply a darker theme. This also prevents tracking.
Custom CSS Mods
With CSS mods or browser dev tools, you can tweak LinkedIn’s interface colors and images. Requires coding expertise.
Give Feedback to LinkedIn
Let LinkedIn know you want dark mode by providing feedback on their UserVoice forum or social accounts. Collective requests help drive change.
While not perfect, these tricks can approximate dark mode for now. Hopefully LinkedIn’s product team is diligently working on an official rollout. In the interim, third-party solutions help fill the void.
Conclusion
Dark mode has become an expected feature across most apps, sites, and operating systems. Yet years into the dark mode craze, LinkedIn still lacks support. Exactly why LinkedIn hasn’t jumped on this trend remains uncertain. Technical constraints, uncertainty over metrics, product prioritization, branding considerations, and slow rollout caution may all play a role. Still, dark mode would likely be well received by LinkedIn’s professional user base. Support across web, iOS and Android can’t come soon enough. Until then, makeshift workarounds provide a glimpse into how good LinkedIn could look with an official dark theme. Hopefully we won’t be left waiting in the light much longer.
