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 device’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 Colour Scheme section choose Dark, Light or Auto (Auto matches your device colour settings)
- Optionally you can also select
- Click the Save changes button at the top or bottom
- Click the Mastodon logo in the top left to go back to your timeline
How do I set dark mode, light mode or other themes on a mobile app?
If you’re using the official Mastodon apps, click on the ⚙️ icon in the top right corner, then General, then select the theme you want in Appearance.
If you’re using a third party Mastodon app, it will have various methods or menus for setting colours. Usually they are in a settings menu, and some of them have more colour options than others.
What themes are available? What colours are available?
The website, web app and official mobile apps come with a dark theme, light theme and automatic switching between them depending on your device settings.
Some third party Mastodon apps also have more themes and/or let you customise the individual colours used by their themes.
Can I set the colour scheme to match my phone or laptop dark/light theme settings?
Yes, this is an option on most apps and interfaces. If it’s there, the option is called “auto” or “automatic” or “system”, and will match whichever option your device is set to.
Wait a minute, weren’t there a lot more themes available for Mastodon?
There used to be many extra unofficial themes available for the official Mastodon web interface, however these seem to have largely disappeared in 2026 due to a major overhaul of Mastodon’s web interface code which broke existing themes. Hopefully new themes are created in the future based on the new code.