---
title: "Appearance settings"
url: https://docs.daily.dev/appearance/
description: "Change how daily.dev looks and behaves under Settings > Appearance, including theme (dark, light, or auto), card or list layout, sidebar labels, feed sorting, the companion widget, and how links open."
lastUpdated: "2026-11-07T16:00:00+02:00"
llmsTxt: https://docs.daily.dev/llms.txt
---

Everything about how daily.dev looks and behaves lives under **Settings** > **Appearance**. Open it from your profile menu: click your avatar, choose **Settings**, then **Appearance**.

<img src="/images/appearance/appearance-settings.jpg" alt="The Settings page with Appearance highlighted in the left menu, showing Theme, Layout (Cards or List), Sidebar (Comfortable or Compact), Preferences toggles, Accessibility, and Reading options" width="1600" height="1000" />

## Theme

Choose between three themes with the icons next to **Theme**:

- **Dark** (moon icon), the default.
- **Light** (sun icon).
- **Auto** (half-circle icon), which follows your operating system's light or dark setting.

You can also switch themes straight from your profile menu.

## Layout

These options appear on desktop screens:

- **Cards** shows posts as cards in a grid, with cover images. This is the default.
- **List** stacks posts in a single column, so you can scan more titles at once.
- **Sidebar**: choose **Comfortable** to show labels under the navigation icons, or **Compact** for icons only.

On phones and tablets, the feed picks the layout that fits your screen.

## Preferences

| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Show feed sorting menu** | Adds a sort menu to your For you and popular feeds so you can sort by **Recommended** or **By date**. Off by default. |
| **Show companion widget on external sites** | Shows the [Companion widget](/the-companion/) on articles you open from daily.dev in the browser extension, so you can upvote, comment, and bookmark without coming back. |
| **Read articles inside daily.dev** | Opens articles in a reader inside daily.dev instead of on the original site. Available in Chrome and Edge, on tablet and desktop screens. |
| **Show hero cards for highlighted news** | Shows large cards for the biggest stories in your feed. |
| **Show widgets above the feed** | Shows the widget row above your feed, if you have it. |
| **Show feedback button** | Shows the **Feedback** button in the sidebar, so you can reach the daily.dev team. |

## Accessibility

- **Auto-hide notifications after a few seconds**: toast messages (like "Post bookmarked") disappear on their own. Turn this off to keep them on screen until you close them.

## Reading

Under **Open links in**, choose where posts open when you click **Read post**:

- **A new tab**: the post opens in a new tab and daily.dev stays open. This is the default.
- **This tab**: the post opens in the current tab, and **Back** returns you to daily.dev.

In the iOS and Android apps, the options are **In daily.dev** (the page opens over the post, with upvote, comment, and save close by) and **In your browser**.

## Other settings that change your experience

- **Reading streaks, quests, and other gamification**: **Settings** > **Streaks & gamification**. See [reading streaks](/weekly-goal/).
- **New tab shortcuts** (extension): profile menu > **Shortcuts**. See [adding shortcuts](/browser-extension-installation/#adding-shortcuts-to-your-new-tab).
- **What's in your feed**: **Settings** > **Feed settings**. See [setting up your feed](/filtering-content-feed/).
- **Notifications**: see [notification settings](/notification-settings-and-preferences/).