Tri state dark mode toggles: have you ever clicked on the override that matches your OS?

[LeaVerou]

On websites that use a three state dark mode toggle (system, light, dark), have you personally, EVER clicked on the override that matches your current system theme (e.g. light on a light OS or dark in a dark OS)?

Not for experimentation or debugging, but because you legit thought "the website looks fine now, I want it to stay in this color scheme even if my OS changes later"

This is about those persistent always visible toggles at the header (or in some cases sidebar or footer) NOT a theme setting in a page specifically for settings.

Important

The question is asking if you've done either of these two:

1. ✅ System (dark) → dark
2. ✅ System (light) → light

That's it. These are the only ones that qualify.

Please don't vote yes for any of the following:

• ❌ System (dark) → light
• ❌ System (light) → dark
• ❌ light → dark
• ❌ light → System
• ❌ dark → light
• ❌ dark → System

This is NOT asking whether you view some websites in a different color scheme than your system theme. If anything, what it's asking is closer to the opposite!

These are also out of scope and do not warrant voting yes:

• ❌ "My OS is in dark mode but I like to read some websites in light mode" (not what is being asked)
• ❌ "my OS is in light mode but some websites look better in dark mode" (not what is being asked)
• ❌ "All dark mode toggles should have three states" (The question asks about your experience using these, not what the control should look like)
• ❌ "Users do this a lot" (The question asks about your own experience, not anyone else's, including hypothetical users)
• ❌ "I like having three states for testing" (The question asks about your experience as a user, not your experience debugging your own sites. Debugging is EXPLICITLY out of scope)

If you can't spend a minute to read the actual question, please come back when you can.

Example tri-state toggles

---

And if the answer is yes, please provide more details!

• What was your thinking at the time?
• What were you trying to achieve?
• What made you seek the toggle in the first place if the website already looked fine?

[LeaVerou]

[kristofzerbe]

My phone is set to dark mode, but I prefer light when reading text, because I got problems with my eyes after a while reading white text on dark backgrounds. Every website should have a switch for all three options!

[LeaVerou]

Please re-read the actual question. What you're describing is out of scope. I just edited the poll because apparently everyone misunderstood this.

[squio]

Explanation "very rarely": only due to a bug in the system dark mode (Atlassian Confluence)

Update: still read it the wrong way, I mean: I always want my browser to match my system, with onnly an exception for a broken implementation -> so "frequently"

And now I can't update, sorry!

[LeaVerou]

I always want my browser to match my system, with onnly an exception for a broken implementation -> so "frequently"

That would be "rarely", if even that.

I am at a loss of how to word this so that people understand what is being asked… Perhaps this is just fundamentally unsuited to a poll.

[cristovaov]

As i shared on Mastodon just now (😅): all the time, if the website gives me the choice. I run fully in dark mode on my devices but i don't necesserally feel like reading a web page in dark mode. And added, that having the tristate is also useful for testing my designs. :)

[LeaVerou]

Please re-read the actual question. What you're describing is out of scope. I just edited the poll because apparently everyone misunderstood this.

[chrrynobaka]

I usually only do this on websites I frequently use, less inclined to do it on those I visit rarely or only once (or twice).
Most of it is just vibe-based, making me feel at ease that if my device settings should act up (or I change something for any reason at all) that it stays the way it should.

I have also had some albeit rare experiences where the System option wasnt implemented properly and some color settings didnt apply everywhere, or where there would a visible (even if only for a single perceived frame) transition/change on page loads - letting past experiences shape future approaches.
When it's tied to user account settings, then I have the added certainty that my preference is device-agnostic (even though all of my devices are generally set to the same setting).

If there was a visible theme selector in my view and I'd see "System" selected, I'd probably change it, thinking and feeling something among the lines of "Just to be safe! Don't you dare act up! This way it'll DEFINITELY be what I want it to be! This way the website will definitely not get it wrong! The device setting is too flimsy (what if it reads it wrong somehow?), I need it to be exactly what I want it to be!", on websites I frequently use, there is a higher chance I'd go out of my way to look for the selector, too.

I'd guess it's a mix of liking the additional sense of certainty and control?

I'd say this generally answers all the questions posed, or at least I hope so!

[yatil]

Yes, rarely. Usually if I go on a website, I only think of changing the theme when it is in the “wrong” mode for me. That said, if I know that the site has a light/dark mode that I prefer regardless in which mode I’m in, I might select it even if the system matches with the preference (more likely when the setting is not hidden behind a dropdown).

What I have done, too, is to try out the theme that does not match system setting and then lock in the theme that matches it just to be sure.

[bramus]

I think the question is wrong here, because when a tri-state is implemented, it is by default set to “System”. In that case I just leave it as is, as I that already matches my OS (which I have set up to not automatically change from light to dark depending on the time of day — which is also a factor to take into account).

[PolariTOON]

As i usually want the theme to be the same as my system, I would indeed expect "system" to be the default, but there are definitely websites with a tri-state where this is not the case. To name a few: Web Dev, StackOverflow or Wikipedia. Maybe because this is kind of experimental for those as they might have existing content that was not made for dark mode and has not yet been migrated.

[LeaVerou]

With a dual state control that goes between System and light/dark (whatever the opposite is), that's the transition you lose: going from the default of System to the override that matches it. And yes, I agree it's pointless 😅

[Rhal95]

My phone frequently switches between light and dark mode. When I use a page over multiple of those switches I get annoyed so I often lock it down from system(light) to light. For pages I only use/read once I don't bother.

[revin]

I do this rarely. Only for sites that I use often and which have a lot of text to read. Light text on a dark background is hard for me to handle because it causes ghosting in my vision. I’m not usually looking for the setting explicitly but when I am looking through the settings to see what’s configurable, if I see it, I fix it to Light while I’m there so it doesn’t change later if anything tries to do some sort of time of day based automatic toggle. For the most part it’s likely redundant because I keep all my devices’ system themes Light, but I do it anyway, belt-and-suspenders style.