In macOS 10.14 Mojave, Apple introduced a new system-wide dark mode
for all macOS computers. If your Electron app has a dark mode, you can make it follow the
system-wide dark mode setting using the nativeTheme
api.
In macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple introduced a new "automatic" dark mode option for all macOS computers.
In order for the nativeTheme.shouldUseDarkColors
and Tray
APIs to work correctly in this mode on
Catalina, you need to either have NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance
set to false
in your
Info.plist
file, or be on Electron >=7.0.0
. Both Electron Packager and
Electron Forge have a darwinDarkModeSupport
option
to automate the Info.plist
changes during app build time.
"Native Interfaces" include the file picker, window border, dialogs, context menus and more; basically,
anything where the UI comes from macOS and not your app. As of Electron 7.0.0, the default behavior
is to opt in to this automatic theming from the OS. If you wish to opt out and are using Electron
> 8.0.0, you must set the NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance
key in the Info.plist
file to true
.
Please note that Electron 8.0.0 and above will not let your opt out of this theming, due to the use
of the macOS 10.14 SDK.
If your app has its own dark mode, you should toggle it on and off in sync with the system's dark
mode setting. You can do this by listening for the theme updated event on Electron's nativeTheme
module.
For example:
const { nativeTheme } = require('electron')
nativeTheme.on('updated', function theThemeHasChanged () {
updateMyAppTheme(nativeTheme.shouldUseDarkColors)
})