Mastodon can be displayed in dark mode, light mode or sometimes other colour schemes as well. You can also set it to automatically use your system’s dark or light mode.
How do I set dark mode, light mode or other themes on the website?
If you’re using your server’s website or web app, do the following:
- Click ⚙️ Preferences (if you’re on a phone click ☰ at bottom right and then ⚙️ Preferences)
- In the Site theme menu select the colour scheme you want
- Click the Save changes button
By default Mastodon servers just have Dark, Light, High Contrast or Automatic. However, your server admin may be able to add more themes and these can be very colourful (there is more info for server admins on editing or adding Mastodon themes here).
If your server has extra themes, you will be able to choose them from the Site Theme menu as described in the instructions above.
How do I set dark or light mode on a mobile app?
Different Mastodon apps have different methods for setting colours. Usually they have similar options to the website (dark, light or automatic) but some have a lot more options and allow all kinds of colour schemes.
Generally there are colour settings in an app’s ⚙️ Settings menu, often in a section labelled “Appearance” or “Themes” or “Colours”.
Are there any other options apart from dark and light?
Yes, but it depends on how you access Mastodon.
The website and web app come with a dark theme, light theme and high contrast theme by default, but they also include the ability for the admin to add custom third party themes. If you want more themes on your server’s website, ask your server admin about it. For example here’s a popular third party theme called Tangerine ⧉ and there’s an admin’s guide to setting custom CSS here.
Some Mastodon apps have lots of themes to choose from, and/or they let you customise the individual colours used by the interface. Others just have dark or light or automatic.
Can I set the colour scheme to match my phone or laptop settings?
Usually yes, this will be listed as “automatic” or “system”.