4.6 Supporting Dark Theme

Android 10 introduced the much awaited dark theme, support for which is not enabled by default in Android Studio app projects. To test dark theme in the AVD emulator, open the Settings app, choose the Display category and enable the Dark Theme option as shown in Figure 4-10 so that the screen background turns black:

Figure 4-10

With dark theme enabled, run the AndroidSample app and note that it appears as before and does not conform to the dark theme.

In order for an app to adopt dark theme, it must be derived from the Android DayNight theme. By default, new projects use the Light.DarkActionBar theme. To change this setting, navigate to the res -> values -> styles.xml file in the Project window as shown in Figure 4-11 and double-click on it to load it into the editor:

Figure 4-11

Once loaded, edit the AppTheme style entry so that it reads as follows:

<resources>

    <!-- Base application theme...