iosios13ios-darkmode

Is it possible to opt-out of dark mode on iOS 13?

A large part of my app consists of web views to provide functionality not yet available through native implementations. The web team has no plans to implement a dark theme for the website. As such, my app will look a bit half/half with Dark Mode support on iOS 13.

Is it possible to opt out of Dark Mode support such that our app always shows light mode to match the website theme?

Solution

  • First, here is Apple's entry related to opting out of dark mode. The content at this link is written for Xcode 11 & iOS 13:

    Entire app via info.plist file (Xcode 12)

    Use the following key in your info.plist file:

    UIUserInterfaceStyle

    And assign it a value of Light.

    The XML for the UIUserInterfaceStyle assignment:

    <key>UIUserInterfaceStyle</key>
<string>Light</string>

    Apple documentation for UIUserInterfaceStyle

    Entire app via info.plist in build settings (Xcode 13)

    (From 2024, it's simply labelled "Appearance". The XML itself is totally unchanged.)

    enter image description here

    Older Xcode:

    enter image description here

    Entire app window via window property

    You can set overrideUserInterfaceStyle against the app's window variable. This will apply to all views that appear within the window. This became available with iOS 13, so for apps that support previous versions, you must include an availability check.

    Depending on how your project was created, this may be in the AppDelegate or SceneDelegate file.

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
    window?.overrideUserInterfaceStyle = .light
}

    Individual UIViewController or UIView

    You can set overrideUserInterfaceStyle against the UIViewControllers or UIView's overrideUserInterfaceStyle variable. This became available with iOS 13, so for apps that support previous versions, you must include an availability check.

    Swift:

    override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    // overrideUserInterfaceStyle is available with iOS 13
    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        // Always adopt a light interface style.
        overrideUserInterfaceStyle = .light
    }
}

    Objective-C:

    if (@available(iOS 13.0, *)) {
        self.overrideUserInterfaceStyle = UIUserInterfaceStyleLight;
}

    When set against the UIViewController, the view controller and its children adopt the defined mode.

    When set against the UIView, the view and its children adopt the defined mode.

    Apple documentation for overrideUserInterfaceStyle

    Individual views via SwiftUI View

    You can set preferredColorScheme to be either light or dark. The provided value will set the color scheme for the presentation.

    import SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("Light Only")
            .preferredColorScheme(.light)
    }
}

    Apple documentation for preferredColorScheme