"We don't have the capacity to support more than two colors right now" is the bizarre excuse X is using to explain why its dimmed theme was just thrown in the bin
While change is inevitable in the world of tech and the Internet, there's usually a good reason behind the moves. However, when X explained why it reduced the number of themes users could choose, the reactions appear to suggest that not only is it not a good idea, but one that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
It all stems from a single post by Nikita Bier, X's head of products (via Futurism), in response to a query as to why now there are only two themes to choose from (default and dark mode), when it used to have three. "We don't have the capacity to support more than two colors right now."
We don't have the capacity to support more than two colors right now. But feedback noted: we are looking into lightening the black on web.February 12, 2026
I'm awfully sorry, but what? In what realm of reality does that even begin to make even a modicum of sense? X's servers hold countless terabytes of data, so a few more megabytes for an additional theme wouldn't even register. And given that once a theme has been created, it requires absolutely zero maintenance, so it's not a staffing problem either.
It's not like users are demanding that X creates a third option from scratch, because the one that's gone missing—a so-called 'dim' mode—was alive and kicking when X was known as Twitter. Now, while I only ever browse X for work, I always use the dark mode theme because I have a 32-inch OLED screen as my main display and using the default mode just sears the retinas clean off my eyeballs.
I never used the tweaked dark mode (aka dim mode), which softens the background colour a touch so that the white text isn't quite so stark against a wall of jet-black, but many people did it would seem. Not anymore, though.
Bier does address the complaints, saying: "[F]eedback noted: we are looking into lightening the black on web." Apart from not being aware that X was available on anything other than the web, I'm just as puzzled by this comment as I am with the decision to remove the dim mode. If X had no capacity for one more theme, surely it doesn't have the capacity to rejig the dark mode?
I have the distinct feeling that Bier's post will end up becoming a meme of somekind, just because it's so utterly bizarre. At the very least, I shall now use it as an excuse for something all the time at home. "Hey Nick, could you go to the kitchen and get me a biscuit? Sorry, but I don't have the capacity to use two legs."