Microsoft launched a dark mode for Outlook back in August 2019. The addition of this mode followed a broader redesign of the app from early last year, bringing with it a fresh new look and new functionality. Now, the Redmond giant is open-sourcing the solution that it built for bringing dark mode to the Outlook app for iOS. This solution is now available in Github and is called DarkModeKit.
We’ve open sourced our @Outlook for iOS solution for supporting dark mode for apps on iOS11+. Check out *DarkModeKit* on Git! 🖤🖤🖤 https://t.co/sKT5OagfF8
— Michael Palermiti (@MPalermiti) February 4, 2020
The company says that DarkModeKit was “designed and developed before Apple‘s official dark mode release”. The solution helps developers build in dark mode support for their apps on iOS 11 or later versions of the OS. The code also includes functionality for the app to change themes between dark and light without restarting the app. The company adds that the solution is a simple API design and involves making minimal tweaks to developers’ existing apps.
Apple added support for dark mode in iOS 13. Since Microsoft"s solution supports all versions released after iOS 11, it could very well help other developers build the functionality in their apps for iOS 13, including bringing dynamic colors that work with the dark hues. It must be noted, however, that the solution works with apps developed with Swift 5 and above or Xcode 11 and above.
Microsoft has been talking up dark mode and the plans to include the theme to its Office 365 suite of apps across platforms. With the firm beginning to embrace the open-source community and continuously contributing in some form or the other, it isn’t surprising to see contributions for apps on competing platforms.