Bizfluence App to release Dark Mode this week. Why doesn’t LinkedIn have Dark Mode yet?
By: Misha Fitton
Tags: LinkedIn, Customer Success, Product Development, Linkedin Marketing, Networking

Bizfluence App to release Dark Mode this week. Why doesn’t LinkedIn have Dark Mode yet? Misha Fitton Aug 23·3 min read

Bizfluencers asked for dark mode and the team is delivering! The update should be coming out this week and will deliver what is a common expectation for apps today…

You know what’s crazy? The business social platform that even in 2021 still doesn’t have dark mode: LinkedIn. It’s surprising that LinkedIn only just recently announced the feature’s development in June 2021. Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today describes LinkedIn’s dinosaur-like product strategy quite well in his post about why LinkedIn doesn’t have dark mode:

“It seems a little behind the times, but LinkedIn is currently testing a new ‘Dark Mode display option for its desktop app, which, as it sounds, would make the app much darker, and predominantly black, based on this new example.”

1 year vs. 19 years

However, it looks like the startup Bizfluence, an SMB-Focused Alternative to LinkedIn, will beat them to release nonetheless. What’s shocking is the age difference between the two companies.

Bizfluence was founded a little over a year ago and it is delivering dark mode now vs. LinkedIn which has a far larger team and STILL hasn’t released Dark Mode despite repeated user requests. How old is LinkedIn? It was founded in 2002… 19 years… and still no dark mode release. Wow!

From my observations in Customer Success, Marketing, and Product Management, when you get too big, you get slow and complacent.

I consider LinkedIn’s historical lack of urgency around dark mode as both a failure in Product and Customer Success. With few exceptions, every other social platform — big tech and startups — has released this functionality years ago. Bizfluence is just a year old and still made it a priority after its 2.0 release in early August 2021. Any social platform with good customer success strategy knows that the viewing experience needs to be lighter on the eyes if you want to keep users healthy and engaged on your platform. Dark mode isn’t just a request, but an expectation now-a-days. LinkedIn should have integrated the mode earlier and the lack of earlier inclusion on its product roadmap makes me skeptical of their priorities.

When a startup, Bizfluence in this case, is competing against an incumbent like LinkedIn, big advantages that the startup have are

More real and close connection with its users that create a true understanding of each user group’s customer journey and respective pain points The flexibility to make rapid changes to address user needs and pain points within a development sprint

This Tweet showcases Bizfluence App’s strong startup customer success and product strategy:

Bizfluence Co-Founder Joel Wolh released the news on Bizfluence and Twitter.

You can follow @RealBizfluence and @joelwolh where the startup journey and news will be released as well.

Join Bizfluence: https://bizfluenceapp.com/

iOS App Link

Google Play / Android App

Find me on Bizfluence https://bizfluenceapp.com/profiles/michaelfitton