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The other useful vision accessibility setting is "Color Filters" - I've used this one two different ways. Currently, I've got it set to put a reddish-orange ca

The other useful vision accessibility setting is "Color Filters" - I've used this one two different ways. Currently, I've got it set to put a reddish-orange cast on the screen - like a "turbo night shift" more similar to the depth F.lux will let you take your mac. You can use the Shortcuts app to create a shortcut to enable the filter, and then set that to turn on at certain points, so around 10 at night my phone goes from normal night shift to a much more aggressive red/orange-shifted profile. The effect at night is dramatic - the phone becomes much less jarring to look at. The OLED screens are great for this, too - a reduction in blue color is a reduction in blue light. The shortcut turns itself back off at 6am. The other filter you can apply is a black & white filter, which removes all color from the screen. Give this a try for an hour and then turn it off - you'll be amazed at the riot of attention-grabbing color app makers are throwing at you. I've found it's a lot easier not to get sucked into the phone hole when the UI is set to black & white - the whole device feels calmer and less urgent. If you haven't spent time in the accessibility settings, though, go exploring. It's where Apple puts all the good stuff.

otteromkram 3y ago
Android (at least version 12) has a bedtime mode that converts the display to B&W. There's also an eye comfort shield feature. However, I stick to using the Blue Light Filter Android app, which is amazing. Not sure if it's available for iOS.
- HPsquared 3y ago
  On Samsung at least, you can set a key shortcut to enable B&W mode. I try and use it most of the time, and the shortcut makes it easy to see things in colour if needed.
  - capitainenemo 3y ago
    You might not have noticed, but check for the button called "Extra Dim" in your Samsung top area quick controls. It's not enabled by default but allows toggling additional dimming. You can customise it in settings to control the level of dimming, adding a a screen or key shortcut, and control whether it activates on phone reboot or not. Key shortcut (or deactivate on reboot) can be helpful if you set it way up, and have adaptive brightness off, and it is a sunny day. (oh, and yeah, it does work nicely with B&W mode and blue light filter modes - all 3 are quite helpful for reading in bed without staying up too late)
- guidedlight 3y ago
  iOS has a similar feature called Night Shift (Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift)
eggplantemoji69 3y ago
I do the exercise of imagining the colors one would be exposed to as a hunter gatherer (context in which humans developed, 90% of human history), and there would seldom be anything vibrant (sunsets, sky, plants/flowers) when compared to today. I would imagine black + white on the phone would assist in more optimally calibrating one's dopaminergic pathways / receptors.
MadnessASAP 3y ago
Just turned on the grayscale, take it for a spin. I'm not surprised the good features are hidden behind Accessibility. I'd argue most other features on a phone are designed for someone else's benefit. Albeit cleverly disguised as benefits for the user.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  This is known as the curb cut effect: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_cut_effect#:~:text=The%20curb%20cut%20effect%20is,hearing%20people%20use%20closed%20captioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_cut_effect#:~:text=The%.... While sloped, level curb cuts at intersections have been implemented primarily for accessibility legislation compliance, it turns out they are useful not only for the disabled but for people with strollers, heavy bags, etc. A similar effect can also be seen with the modern ubiquity of closed captioning.
  - roughly 3y ago
    Yeah, this is a standard mantra in Accessibility work - ability is a spectrum, and people move up and down this spectrum both across their lives and even within their days.
    - r00fus 3y ago
      I like the saying "most people are temporarily able-bodied". You will likely need accessibility at some point in your life - and almost surely nearing the end of it. So clearly affordances to assist the disabled are going to benefit everyone ... eventually.
      - user_7832 3y ago
        I vaguely remember a statistic of something like 20 or 30% of the population will be disabled at some time in their life. (Easy examples include old people needing walkers/sticks). MS also had a very interesting design for disability brochure that talked about how even a "regular" person can be temporarily disabled - eg if you're holding a heavy bag of groceries, opening a door that needs 2 hands is very difficult. Designing for amputees will also help the 99% of the population doing grocery runs.
andrepd 3y ago
The alternative to black and white stuff is simply: curate what you have in your phone. Uninstall all social media (yes all). Keep only constructive content on your device. No useless apps sending notifications, no feed of brain-rotting content at one tap on you homescreen. I keep: - a carefully curated list of high-quality channels on youtube (on newpipe, so no tracking and no echo chamber personalised recommendations) - a carefully curated list of high-quality subreddits - hackernews And that's it. Just cut off the junk, grayscale wont save you
- deleted 3y ago
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- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- arepublicadoceu 3y ago
  > Uninstall all social media (yes all). > - a carefully curated list of high-quality subreddits > - hackernews So you're not removing all social media from your phone?
  - andrepd 3y ago
    I put hackernews and high-quality subreddits like AskHistorians or truegaming in the same category as forums, not on the same category as facebook :)
ckosidows 3y ago
B&W mode is great until you're trying look at photos or watch videos. I wish there was a setting in the operating system to remove color from UI elements and not videos or images. Or turn B&W on/off for certain apps, like photos and youtube. And I guess not having color for videos is maybe the point, but I can't manage to use it at all if I can't watch videos with color.
- tshaddox 3y ago
  A few months ago I played around with a bunch of iOS shortcuts to turn the grayscale mode off when I opened certain apps then back on when I closed them. It was a cute idea, I thought, but it didn’t work reliably so I quickly turned it off.
chrisdalke 3y ago
I do the same thing with a shortcut of Triple Click side button -> Color Filters. You can set this up in Accessibility and it will let you tint your phone to be nearly 100% red pixels.

otteromkram 3y ago

Android (at least version 12) has a bedtime mode that converts the display to B&W. There's also an eye comfort shield feature. However, I stick to using the Blue Light Filter Android app, which is amazing. Not sure if it's available for iOS.

HPsquared 3y ago
On Samsung at least, you can set a key shortcut to enable B&W mode. I try and use it most of the time, and the shortcut makes it easy to see things in colour if needed.
- capitainenemo 3y ago
  You might not have noticed, but check for the button called "Extra Dim" in your Samsung top area quick controls. It's not enabled by default but allows toggling additional dimming. You can customise it in settings to control the level of dimming, adding a a screen or key shortcut, and control whether it activates on phone reboot or not. Key shortcut (or deactivate on reboot) can be helpful if you set it way up, and have adaptive brightness off, and it is a sunny day. (oh, and yeah, it does work nicely with B&W mode and blue light filter modes - all 3 are quite helpful for reading in bed without staying up too late)
guidedlight 3y ago
iOS has a similar feature called Night Shift (Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift)

eggplantemoji69 3y ago

I do the exercise of imagining the colors one would be exposed to as a hunter gatherer (context in which humans developed, 90% of human history), and there would seldom be anything vibrant (sunsets, sky, plants/flowers) when compared to today. I would imagine black + white on the phone would assist in more optimally calibrating one's dopaminergic pathways / receptors.

MadnessASAP 3y ago

Just turned on the grayscale, take it for a spin. I'm not surprised the good features are hidden behind Accessibility. I'd argue most other features on a phone are designed for someone else's benefit. Albeit cleverly disguised as benefits for the user.

bobthepanda 3y ago
This is known as the curb cut effect: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_cut_effect#:~:text=The%20curb%20cut%20effect%20is,hearing%20people%20use%20closed%20captioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_cut_effect#:~:text=The%.... While sloped, level curb cuts at intersections have been implemented primarily for accessibility legislation compliance, it turns out they are useful not only for the disabled but for people with strollers, heavy bags, etc. A similar effect can also be seen with the modern ubiquity of closed captioning.
- roughly 3y ago
  Yeah, this is a standard mantra in Accessibility work - ability is a spectrum, and people move up and down this spectrum both across their lives and even within their days.
  - r00fus 3y ago
    I like the saying "most people are temporarily able-bodied". You will likely need accessibility at some point in your life - and almost surely nearing the end of it. So clearly affordances to assist the disabled are going to benefit everyone ... eventually.
    - user_7832 3y ago
      I vaguely remember a statistic of something like 20 or 30% of the population will be disabled at some time in their life. (Easy examples include old people needing walkers/sticks). MS also had a very interesting design for disability brochure that talked about how even a "regular" person can be temporarily disabled - eg if you're holding a heavy bag of groceries, opening a door that needs 2 hands is very difficult. Designing for amputees will also help the 99% of the population doing grocery runs.

andrepd 3y ago

The alternative to black and white stuff is simply: curate what you have in your phone. Uninstall all social media (yes all). Keep only constructive content on your device. No useless apps sending notifications, no feed of brain-rotting content at one tap on you homescreen. I keep: - a carefully curated list of high-quality channels on youtube (on newpipe, so no tracking and no echo chamber personalised recommendations) - a carefully curated list of high-quality subreddits - hackernews And that's it. Just cut off the junk, grayscale wont save you

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
arepublicadoceu 3y ago
> Uninstall all social media (yes all). > - a carefully curated list of high-quality subreddits > - hackernews So you're not removing all social media from your phone?
- andrepd 3y ago
  I put hackernews and high-quality subreddits like AskHistorians or truegaming in the same category as forums, not on the same category as facebook :)

ckosidows 3y ago

B&W mode is great until you're trying look at photos or watch videos. I wish there was a setting in the operating system to remove color from UI elements and not videos or images. Or turn B&W on/off for certain apps, like photos and youtube. And I guess not having color for videos is maybe the point, but I can't manage to use it at all if I can't watch videos with color.

tshaddox 3y ago
A few months ago I played around with a bunch of iOS shortcuts to turn the grayscale mode off when I opened certain apps then back on when I closed them. It was a cute idea, I thought, but it didn’t work reliably so I quickly turned it off.

chrisdalke 3y ago

I do the same thing with a shortcut of Triple Click side button -> Color Filters. You can set this up in Accessibility and it will let you tint your phone to be nearly 100% red pixels.