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Go Gray, Not Cray: Why You Should Grayscale Your Phone
- charlie-83 10mo agoThis is such an interesting idea. Might as well try it Edit: didn't last long (about an hour). Needed to show some one a photo and had to turn it off.
- SkyPuncher 9mo agoI keep it in my control panel so I can flip it on and off easily
- jtbaker 9mo agoI was able to add it as a "Color Filters" "quick control" toggle from the top right drag-down menu (not sure what you call that) in iOS 17. We'll see how long I last with it. I'm intrigued as well.
- catgirlinspace 9mo agothat menu is control center
- skydhash 9mo agoI ser the Accessibility Shortcut to Color Filter. A triple press of the button toggle the filter.
- treetalker 10mo agoWorks great with iOS's double/triple tap on the back feature.
- sickcodebruh 9mo agoTIL! I had no idea this was a thing. https://support.apple.com/en-us/111772 https://support.apple.com/en-us/111772 It really is a great fit for this feature.
- mistercow 9mo ago> Color pixels drain more energy than grayscale ones. Personally found my phone lasting twice as long as before. Over time, a considerable extension of your phone’s lifespan. What? Why? Why would you even entertain that as a hypothesis?
- D-Machine 9mo agoThey said they found themselves using their phone far less due to the grayscale, which would be the real thing extending battery life here. Or at least, this was what I assumed on reading.
- mistercow 9mo agoYeah, that’s the only explanation that makes sense. It’s just so strange to think that color pixels would use more energy.
- dgoodell 9mo agoI guess if one color pixel was significantly less efficient, and that color was also overrepresented on the display, then MAYBE changing to grayscale would require slightly less power to display the same intensity. But I don’t think that convoluted scenario probably isn’t what this person was thinking.
- bfkwlfkjf 9mo agoWhy is it strange? Given that you have no idea whatsoever how pixels work, whats strange is that you have any expectation at all.
- drdeca 9mo agoWhat? I think we all have some idea of how pixels work.
- musebox35 9mo agoThat is likely. Another factor that came into my mind is the gpu using less power due to simpler computations. You can store less data for grayscale, so you need to go over less pixel data to do effects etc. Whether accessibility controls achieve this or not would be implementation dependent I guess.
- 4b11b4 9mo agoOn android this is easy you can add a button to the bottom nav bar
- RijilV 9mo agoI keep on pestering folks who work at Apple to add color filters to the per-app accessibility options, who knows maybe there's someone there who'll read this. (Edit: there is an internal feature request already) Since iOS of a couple of versions ago, you can trigger color filters on and off from shortcuts, and get a similar behaviour, but it isn't perfect and sometimes glitches. I do this so my photos app and a few others are in color, but the rest are in grey scale.
- et1337 9mo agoI tried it for a while, it was fun explaining it to people, but didn’t actually help much. I ended up blocking all time wasters except HN, which is almost monochrome anyway.
- holly01 9mo agoThis was my experience as well. While it is less straining on the eyes, that was the only benefit I saw. I didn't see a reduction in screen time or less anxiety about notifications.
- esperent 9mo agoI set grayscale in my phone's quiet hours settings. It's to help me sleep, rather than to reduce my phone usage. It means if I wake in the night and look at my phone, I'm not blasted by colors. Or if I stay up a bit later than usual. I find it beneficial although probably not revolutionary. I did try setting my phone to grayscale during the day but didn't see much if any benefits there.
- wizardforhire 9mo agoYou know avoiding the pain, struggle and pseudo-science of gray pixels… you could just turn every notification off and remove any social media. Call me crazy, but I reckon this will go a lot further than any monochromatic color scheme in achieving the desired results.
- safety1st 9mo agoI tried everything under the sun including the grayscale trick, and at the end of the day there were three things that worked. Putting the phone on silent, putting it out of sight, and simply turning it off. This resulted in 5 hours of phone time per day declining to 1 (it's my companion at the gym plus during most meals and that's OK). Everyone's approach is going to be a little different depending on the rhythm of their life. For me the phone usually stays turned off for most of the morning now. It's in a drawer for most of the afternoon/evening. If I'm out and about it's in my pocket or bag on silent. It briefly gets unmuted at times when I'm expecting a delivery, appointment etc. and that's about it. The bar is high because the peace of mind is too great to lose.
- bfkwlfkjf 9mo agoFIVE hours a day? I spend one hour a day and I feel like I'm constantly battling addiction.
- parentheses 9mo agoI prefer using the same feature to have an extremely warm (almost red) tone. I think it's much more pleasing than b/w and results in less blue light for me.
- 1123581321 9mo agoI do similarly. Triple tap puts it in night mode, red and black. It’s nice for checking messages in the middle of the night.
- joecool1029 9mo agoI have color filters set to kick in if I double tap the back of iphone it shuts off everything but red subpixels. Good for preserving night vision.
- nine_k 9mo ago«Color pixels drain more energy than grayscale ones. Personally found my phone lasting twice as long as before.» Is this a joke? Is there a real physical effect at play?
- SoftTalker 9mo agoI can't imagine. AFAIK no phone has "grayscale" pixels. Grey or white light is achieved by blending the other colors equally. A true monochrome screen is a thing, but they are for specialized applications and not used in phones.
- scotty79 9mo agoMaybe power draw is not linear and with grayscale rgb sub-pixels can operate at lower intensity and lower power draw than if the luminance wasn't distributed across all colors?
- boterock 9mo agosome oled displays have white subpixels, i dont know if the power cost is a thing though
- D-Machine 9mo agoThey said they noticed themselves looking at their phone far less. Most likely this is what saved the power, just a typical spurious correlation and a bad theory for the reason.
- ivansavz 9mo agoI've been in Grayscale for some time now (almost a month), and it's great. I always wanted to have a phone with an eInk display, and this is pretty close feeling (aesthetically). Scrolling is no longer interesting, and food looks un-appetizing. Making the digital reality look boring is a good deal to make the real world look more exciting. Thanks to comments from @jtbaker and @SkyPuncher I just added a shortcut to the "pull out" menu so I can now turn off when I need to work with pictures where colors are important.
- drekipus 9mo agoI actually just recently bought a big me hibreak pro phone. Eink, supports Google Play natively, (I can still install Instagram, Google maps, Facebook, and WhatsApp, etc). Which were my two biggest needs. It has been pretty great to use. The whole paradigm changes, because it also has the slow refresh, and the screen is physically different, single level brightness. Funnily enough, I now catch myself with increased short term anxiety and FOMO. I've just acknowledged it as withdrawal syndrome from the dopamine of short form videos. That and I misplace the phone a bit more now because it's no longer a crack pipe. It's taking effort to stick with it, but I increasingly love it. And I still get to partake in "society" and social media, just on my own terms. You also realise just how many ads there are, because they don't draw you in so you can see them more critically. What I thought was one in 20, is actually something more like one in 4
- Bridged7756 9mo agoDidn't work for me. App blocker from 9:30 PM - 5 PM. 30 mins Max a day of short form content apps.
- tailspin2019 9mo agoI just installed Foqos[0] (iOS, free) for this exact purpose. Excellent app. You can require scanning an NFC tag or QR code to disable app/web blocking. I plan to put an NFC tag in my car, so that (while I’m home or working at my desk) I have to physically go outside if I really want to unlock my blocked apps before the end of the preset schedule. Meaning…. in reality…. I’m not likely to. [0] https://www.foqos.app https://www.foqos.app
- catlikesshrimp 9mo agoDecades ago I had one or two tẽte à tẽte about grayscale not being the same as black and white. You could emulate grayscale with b&w if you had a much larger canvas. In short: Black and white is 2 bits, grayscale is 8, 16 , more? bits Am I wrong?
- triMichael 9mo agoYou are correct, grayscale is where every pixel's R = G = B, which for a 24 bit image would include 256 colors.
- sdenton4 9mo agoYou're not wrong, Walter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6BYzLIqKB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6BYzLIqKB8
- kilna 9mo agoBlack and white is 1-bit, where one value (say, 1) means white and the other (say, 0) means black.
- shubhamjain 9mo agoI tried this. One week in, I got used to grayscale as well and my screen time was back to the baseline (maybe only marginally affected). After nearly a decade of trying these tricks, hacks, and gamified interventions, it’s clear to me why they rarely work: they fixate on the symptom (screen time, social media use) rather than the underlying problem. Your mind craves to feel engaged/challenged in something. So, the actual problem is finding meaningful activities to replace your empty screen time, which isn't necessarily easy. If you want to reduce your screen time, the boring old discipline is much more sustainable approach. Put the phone down and replace it with a book, or puzzles, or hobbies, or time with people.
- Trasmatta 9mo agoAgreed. My brain just adjusted to grey scale and I was scrolling just as much. There are no easy / simple hacks.
- kaffekaka 9mo agoI fully agree. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Social media overuse is an emotional problem, not a technical.
- hn92726819 9mo agoDisagree. "Just do it" works for some people. Not everyone. In my experience, I hated looking at a gray screen, so I just stop using my phone when it's in grayscale.
- DANmode 9mo agoBut they didn’t say “just do it” :) They said “spend effort ensuring other meaningful time-draws are around that are more fulfilling/less damaging”. Relevant excerpt: > the actual problem is finding meaningful activities to replace your empty screen time, which isn't necessarily easy.
- hn92726819 9mo agoThat's true. I came off too dismissive. I like the advice, I was just disagreeing with: > it’s clear to me why they rarely work: ... and > boring old discipline is much more sustainable approach I like the idea of trying a more holistic approach, but grayscale doesn't have to contradict with that. Some people (myself included) can use grayscale as a tool alongside other things.
- Brajeshwar 9mo agoThis ideas pops up pretty often, and people have their opinions. Personally, I suggest against this, especially if you are older (40+ years). I’ve tried this, and it is a hindrance to some of the critical apps I use regularly, such as Camera, Maps, Messages, and occasionally the Phone App.[1] Of course, you can set shortcuts in the Control Center, double-tap the back of your phone, and all of that jazz, but it is slower, and the UX is a hindrance when you need it. Instead, have the minimal App on your HomeScreen to avoid distractions as much as possible and/or remove the usual suspects — Social Media Apps, Games, etc. The idea is to make your Phone boring but just works when you need it. You can continue to use them on your desktop/laptop, which prevents that easy reach when you are not at your desk. Read[2] or write[3] if you are serious about avoiding distractions. If you already use a Smartwatch,[4] you can reduce your phone usage a lot more. And the eyes work much harder in the Grayscale than in well-contrast colors. I prefer most things minimal; no labels, no text where not needed, learn shortcuts, etc. However, my phone is set to show labels and has higher contrast in the evening/night, while it shows no labels during the day. If I have to glance at it at night while driving or wake up to VIP/critical calls at night, I can see way faster and easier than squinting my eyes or fumbling for the glass. Grayscale is horribly in this situation. And shooting photos in Grayscale, even if the actual photos are in color, is another blunder. I want to see the shades while shooting to compensate for any errors. Again, especially in the dark (however good phone AIs have become), it will always be either too bright and saturated (compensated by the AI) or too dark with a chance in lens at the last moment, trying to focus elsewhere. 1. https://brajeshwar.com/2024/phone/ https://brajeshwar.com/2024/phone/ 2. https://brajeshwar.com/books/ https://brajeshwar.com/books/ 3. https://brajeshwar.com/2025/notes/ https://brajeshwar.com/2025/notes/ 4. https://brajeshwar.com/2024/watch-tiny-handy-computer/ https://brajeshwar.com/2024/watch-tiny-handy-computer/
- grim_io 9mo agoMy theory is, that people who have the discipline to follow these weird self-imposed restrictions, don't actually need them. They can just follow through with the self-imposed restrictions on the actual problem. If you want to limit social media time, then limit your social media time. Can't? BW screen won't help you.
- polishdude20 9mo agoWhat about a feature that randomized the app locations on your home screen every time you open it? That way, no muscle memory develops.
- BigGreenJorts 9mo agoDid something like this and just got comfortable always using app search instead of icon selection
- polishdude20 9mo agoFoiled again!
- pjmlp 9mo agoAs someone that grew up without mobile phones and Internet, not being able to disconnect seems rather strange. Maybe the memes about growing up in the 70 and 80s have some truthiness to them. "Psychology of people thar grew up in the 80s" https://youtu.be/8VADi7dPb44?si=L0BtbQoSe0-BuSAh https://youtu.be/8VADi7dPb44?si=L0BtbQoSe0-BuSAh
- scotty79 9mo agoVibrant colors of my OLED phone screen and snappiness of 165Hz refresh are recurring source of delight in my life. I won't rid myself of it. Some time ago I bought myself eink tablet to try something new and my disappointed with its screen was severe.
- ksec 9mo agoI just tried this and found having Enhanced Contrast with grayscale looks a little better. I dont do doom scrolling on social media, but if this increase my phone battery life by 50% I will be happy. Since most of my days is endless Whatsapp or Email. I am also wondering if simply having the filter showing in between colour and grayscale would improve battery life as well?
- superb-owl 9mo agoJust learned you don’t have to go full grayscale! You can put the filter on 80% and still get the color semantics while also being less stimulated Thanks to whoever added this