Enthusiastic Android users who have been following a Google Issue Tracker dark thread from November last year celebrated an exciting new development today. The thread, in which a user asked about a dark mode to improve battery life on Android phones with OLED displays, was marked as "fixed," with a Google employee saying that the Android engineering team had added this feature and that it "would be available. in a future version of Android."

Unfortunately, Google now says it was a mistake. "Unfortunately, this bug was closed prematurely due to a miscommunication with the team handling AOSP issues," the company said in a statement given to the Android Police .

"What we have added in a future version of Android is a developer-oriented setting (via Developer Options) to toggle the nighttime UI mode qualifier, which will make it easier for developers to create and test apps that implement night mode."

Google added that "if it's any consolation, we won't be adding Hot Dog mode (where all UI elements are yellow and red) either," which is obviously no consolation.

Users responded to the initial thread with enthusiasm, with many praising Google for finally implementing a system-level night mode feature. The only option now is the low-key dark mode that, until last October, was exclusive to Pixel 2.

That feature allows users to switch from a light to dark theme based on their phone's wallpaper, and it came to the original Pixel. with Android 8.1, according to the observed by AndroidPolice . Hopefully Google will decide to expand on that, or possibly take into account the number of users eager for a better UI solution for bright displays and battery life conservation.

Update at 8:03 PM ET, 2/23: The following is added a statement from Google clarifying that a dark mode for Android is not on the way, and that the company miscommunicated this in the initial Google Issue Tracker thread.