Google has a sneaky way of reminding the Android fraternity that it owns the software. Lately, only Google Nexus and Pixel phones have ended up with the best and latest Android versions. For example, Nexus 6P, 5X, and OG Pixels have Android 7.1.2 Nougat. As at the time of this writing, only this phone, including Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, has an Android 8.1 Oreo that runs its show.
Like other minor upgrades, v8.1 does not bring any major changes compared to v8.0; Instead, it improves the stability of the OS through refinement and adds some nice features under the hood. One additional Google Pixel and Nexus users acquired with this update is native support for dark themes. This feature was originally exclusive to Pixel Launcher on Pixel 2 phones and only made it into other Google families via update 8.1. But how do you turn it on and off, if you need to do it? Read on
Getting a dark theme on Android 8.1 Oreo is one of the easiest things you can do on a Pixel or Nexus phone - because almost everything happens automatically based on your wallpaper. When you select a light wallpaper, the launcher will automatically apply a light theme. If you go for black wallpapers, well, you get a dark theme? Changes to themes will affect notification panels, power menus and certain UI elements like quick settings and folders only, but the Settings app and other share apps remain unchanged. Unfortunately, there is no toggle to switch manually between dark and light themes as some people want.
Note that this nice little addition is limited to Android 8.1 Oreo (at least for now), an OS that may be just a few Google phones that will not get. Notwithstanding this, we can not guarantee that this feature will also reach such devices. On the brighter side, people at XDA forums have a detailed process of how you can install dark themes on Android 8.0 Oreo without root.