We’ve been following Android 12’s new screen-dimming feature for some time — not because it’s that revolutionary, but because Google keeps changing the name for it. We’ve gone through “Reduce Bright Colors” and “Reduce Brightness,” but as of DP3, Google appears to have settled on a less easily understandable “extra dim” name.
Although the feature has gone through a few different names since it debuted in DP1, it works simply. Extra dim is a new quick settings toggle that reduces screen brightness to a configurable level separately from the brightness slider itself, which does not change. Long-pressing the toggle (or navigating to Settings -> Accessibility -> Extra dim) pulls up a simple settings menu for how it works.
You can configure the strength of the “dimness,” assign a not-quite-perfectly-described accessibility shortcut (though the shortcut options have changed), and set a toggle to force it to stay on after your phone restarts — by default, it won’t.
I realize that although we’ve talked about it a few times in our coverage, we’ve never actually shown you what it looks like in action. Screenshots can’t capture it, and I’m no YouTuber, but you can still take a look:
It’s not exactly a game-changing feature, but for those that like to read by the dimmest possible settings at night (like me) it could come in handy. Given how often the feature’s name has changed so far, though, I expect we’ll run through at least one or two more iterations before Android 12 is stable. I vote for “not-so-bright-but-you-can-adjust-it mode”
