'We don't have the capacity to support more than 2 colors right now' is the bizarre excuse X is using to explain why its dimmed theme was just thrown in the bin

(Image credit: X)

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.

A screenshot of the display options in X, showing the two colour themes — (Image credit: X)

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."

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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?

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