After launching and pretty much abandoning a number of messaging apps, Google has gone back to the default one – the good ol' Android Messages, which is now being reworked into something of an iMessage counterpart for Android. Google recently launched the long-awaited web client for Messages, but the app itself still has a long way to go before it becomes the ultimate messaging app Google wants it to me.The latest update for the app, which still hasn't rolled out officially, will introduce a dark theme – another simple feature that fans have been requesting for years. This is likely the first step to the promised, total Material redesign of the Messages app – a treatment that Google's been giving to many of its apps over the past months.

The dark theme is not yet available to all users, but the folks over at XDA have managed to force-enable it in the latest version of the Android Messages app. As its name implies, the theme changes the default Material design white background to a very dark shade of grey, while inverting the text to white. Secondary colors, such as the ones on buttons and avatar bubbles, become more vibrant and pronounced, so as to better contrast with the dark background.

The theme is obviously not yet finished, as there are still numerous kinks that need to be ironed out. For example, some colors are not well optimized to stand out against the dark background and may cause minor eye strain as they are right now. All of these issues will be solved in time for the final release, we bet, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks.

Image source: XDA

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