A true 'Night Mode' may return to older Nexus devices

Nexus 6P users who were miffed to find Night Mode removed when they installed the Android 7.1 Nougat OS update might have received an optimistic hint from Google of its eventual return. Night Mode acts as a blue light filter that helps reduce eye strain when looking at your phone late at night, and can be set to turn on automatically at sundown.

Once Nexus users realized Night Mode had been removed, some of the more snarky users resorted to reporting the lack of Night Mode in the latest Nougat release as a bug. Curiously, one such report has been closed with its status set to "FutureRelease". Without an official statement or blog post confirming its eventual return, it's still unclear exactly what this report status means. But it could be an encouraging sign that it might eventually make a return to Nexus devices.

Night Mode as part of the Nougat OS is currently exclusively available on Pixel and Pixel XL devices, found in the Display settings and referred to as Night Light. If you haven't upgraded to a Pixel and just want Night Mode back on your Nexus, there is a workaround available that you might want to check out.

Were you bummed out by the removal of Night Mode? Or is this a feature you're more than happy to live without?

Marc Lagace

Marc Lagace was an Apps and Games Editor at Android Central between 2016 and 2020. You can reach out to him on Twitter [@spacelagace.