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A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life
- b3ing 4mo agoThis blog needed a video honestly, I tried to set it up but haven’t yet
- hemmert 4mo agoI want my phone to be greyscale (low-dopamine), but some apps need color. Here's my workaround that works for me (triple-pressing the side button didn't, I forget to turn greyscale back on.)
- deepvibrations 4mo agoThis is great, would love to see a similar way to do it in Android.
- Groxx 4mo agoI don't know of any way to control the setting automatically (sometimes there are special-permission non-standard/undocumented intents for settings though), but as a maybe-close-enough you can turn on grayscale color correction (in accessibility -> color & motion, in my phone) and add a quick-settings tile to toggle it.
- striking 4mo agoYou can also use one of the accessibility shortcuts to trigger it quickly (both volume buttons held, triple tap, two fingers from bottom) if so configured
- froindt 4mo agoI'm on a Pixel 10 for these instructions, not sure if other manufacturers offer the same options. Modes is an available option in the tile list. You can go to Modes, create a custom mode, and under display options you can set greyscale. You can also set modes to turn on automatically based on calendar events or a schedule. Notification tweaks are also available in the same area.
- roryirvine 4mo agoYes, Modes / Display Settings / Greyscale. Having it in the tile list makes it super easy - make sure the Modes tile is near the top, so it becomes a single swipe to switch it on and off. But app contrast is generally better on Android than on iOS (in particular, Google Maps is perfectly usable in greyscale on Android) so you might find you don't need to switch it as often as you might think.
- Groxx 4mo agoAgreed, it's pretty rare that you'll need to turn it off. The default theming color selection does a good job making sure that lightness is different, so virtually all not-completely-custom-styled apps work with all kinds of color blindness.
- rubslopes 4mo agoSamsung routines can do this.
- sphars 4mo agoThere's likely a way to do with via Tasker/MacroDroid but you'll likely need to use Shizuku (or possibly root) to change these system settings.
- ryanchants 4mo agoOn a Pixel phone, you can do Accessibility -> Color Mode
- multiplegeorges 4mo agoUsing my phone in grayscale convinced me of the power of shiny colours. It is shocking how boring my phone feels in grayscale. This really does help break any feeling of attachment to the device and the solutions in this post really do make it more practical. It does kind of suck using the camera in grayscale.
- embedding-shape 4mo agoI've bound toggling greyscale on/off to pressing the lock-button 3 times, makes it very easy to switch back/forth when you need it, but still be able to leave it greyscale most of the time.
- culi 4mo agoI do this too but often forget to turn it back on when I need it off (e.g. for maps or for looking at a picture)
- oldsklgdfth 4mo agoCan remember how I set it up. Tap the back of my iphone 3 times and it toggles greyscale. Makes taking and looking at photos nice.
- golem14 4mo agoThat's pretty nifty -- how to you register taps on back with automation?
- golem14 4mo agoAlso, since I had an atari st as my first 'serious" computer, I loved the B&W monitor and b&W GEM. I'm still looking for a way to preserve the low-color feel for my macbooks and mac desktops. Also I love the idea of low-dopamine UIs in principle. For same reasons as the original author, I find myself to abandon the B&W mode and then do not turn it back on later. I'd envision OS layer that handles the desktop, finder and apps, and an API that apps like browsers can use, e.g. in chrome extensions. Anyone here aware of work in that area?
- what 4mo agoIt’s in the accessibility settings. You can assign an action for double or triple tap.
- SoftTalker 4mo agoNever knew that tapping the back of the phone did anything. Yet another Apple convention you only discover by accident?
- everly 4mo agoMore like an accessibility setting that has widespread utility (there are several others, e.g. iOS has built-in background noise generators in accessibility) That said, tapping on the back of the phone didn’t register consistently enough for me to utilize. I tried setting flashlight to that action. When I wanted it to work it wouldn’t. Then when I would be absentmindedly tapping it would activate.
- daohieu91 4mo ago[flagged]
- tasoeur 4mo agoThis is actually very neat, my phone is already setup with grayscale and triple tap to turn on red light filter so I’m exited to add that! Little plug since we’re in the topic of dumb phones etc, I have a completely free and non-creepy iPhone app launcher for folks who are into that: - https://sxp.studio/apps/applist https://sxp.studio/apps/applist (The app catalog is also open source)
- matthewfcarlson 4mo agoI’ve been doing exactly this (with the shortcuts) for almost 3 years now. I don’t think it’s as powerful as I would like but it’s certainly helped. I do wish more apps worked in grayscale (calendar I’m looking at you) but that’s on my long list of grievances.
- Maximus9000 4mo agoThis is fantastic! I had greyscale on many years ago, but I had to turn turn colours back on for google maps... but this trick allows me to have my cake and eat it too!
- dylan604 4mo agoLooking at the example images, I was actually shocked that the app was so low contrast in B&W to be unusable. At least apps from Apple/Google. I would have expected their usability teams to be all over it, while expecting smaller app devs to need a pass on this.
- iosguyryan 4mo agoAccessibility > Vibration > Off Removes a lot of purposefully rewarding/manipulating haptics. Makes a phone feel "quiet" and easier to put down.
- throw03172019 4mo agoWhat apps were vibrating that much? I live in Do Not Disturb mode so I don’t have sounds for alerts.
- justinator 4mo agoDoes running greyscale help with energy conservation?
- martheen 4mo agoProbably not. OLED screens use less energy the more absolute dark pixel in the screen, and darker anything (can be greyscale or color) consume somewhat less than brighter anything, but greyscale on its own usually don't change how much absolute dark and darker pixels being displayed, unless you also tweak the brightness. Usually, the color filter is applied at the end of the process, so the GPU don't get to skip any calculation. If it makes you use your device less, then you do save energy a bit.
- fouc 4mo agojinx! looks like we answered a 5 hour old question at the same time ha!
- justinator 4mo agoI still appreciate the answer(s)!
- fouc 4mo agoDoubtful, the screen is still the same, same amount of light is getting projected, same amount of graphics calculations is still happening. If there's any impact it's probably quite low, maybe less than 0.0001%
- erelong 4mo agoI use perpetual night mode blue light filter, it just feels cozy enough Grayscale was a functional problem because some pics communicate with color (like colored maps) so it nudged me away
- usernametaken29 4mo agoThis is awesome, hope it helps me squash my YouTube addiction
- fionic 4mo agoSetting up triple click to toggle greyscale on or off in accessibility settings whenever I need color enabled works much better for me
- N_Lens 4mo agoWhat?! And miss out on setting up 72 automations for different apps that sometimes bug out?
- manwe150 4mo agoIt’s 1 automation for all apps The clever insight here is that it automates turning grayscale back on whenever you leave (or alternatively open) an app
- broof 4mo agoOriginally I had grayscale mode on and it reduced my phone usage a ton, but I stopped because it got in the way of photos and camera, things like that. I changed to using the triple click accessibility shortcut but I found it relied too much on me having to remember to turn the grayscale mode back on. This automates it so I’ll try it and hopefully it helps reduce phone usage more.
- Ronsenshi 4mo agoTried turning on greyscale mode and I am surprised by how effectively it works in making me not want to use the phone. Not sure if it's the lack of color in general or because screens kind of turn into a black and white mush that's hard to navigate.
- HerbManic 4mo agoI think it is a mix of both. Grey scale reduces the vividness of everything, but also none of these apps are really designed with grey scale in mind. Greyscale can be very cool and easy to use if built for it. Just look at Mac's before they went colour as an example.
- HeartStrings 4mo agoI turned off all notifications, put the phone away upside down and same effect.
- omk 4mo agoHave been in using greyscale on and off to reduce my screen time. Due the issues that the author reported I switched back and changed the icon colors to monocolor grey with black wallpaper to atleast keep the phone default UI color free. The first behaviour it changed is making app logos of Instagram, YouTube, Reddit stand out. Some of these apps became a reflex click when I unlock my phone usually as a fidget. Greyscale takes away the lure of these app icons. Love the shortcuts tip. Setting it up to see if I can sustain greyscale full time now.
- manwe150 4mo agoThis is such a clever way to automate so that the setup actually works. I just set it up, and wonder why the author didn’t set it up to trigger grayscale on app opening. I noticed that app switching also isn’t considered closing an app, so it seems most reliable to trigger on app open as well as close
- ShinyLeftPad 4mo agoIt works for me when switching.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- drzaiusx11 4mo agoI switched to a nxtpaper pro phone which has a hardware switch for bw vs color modes and an e-ink like display (not as good but close enough) I love it, mostly because it forces me to use phone less..
- chrisbrandow 4mo agoClever!
- nunez 4mo agoI'd love to see more attention given to what I've called "red mode". It's a colour filter that, well, makes the screen red. It's AMAZING for reading at night. Not bright, renders text clearly, amazing on the eyes. I'd also like to see an eInk phone take off, but this is more doable. Reduce White Point is also great for reducing max brightness and preserving eye health
- leejoramo 4mo agoI too have had a shortcut for “red filter” + “minimal brightness” + “reduced brightness” for years. I trigger it by a Triple back tap. Great for night usage with our eye strain or bothering your spouse
- bigmattystyles 4mo agoMy BMW defaults to orange / reddish for night time and I’ve often thought it’s very easy on the eyes.
- orev 4mo agoMy setup is: dark mode, color filters tint red, brightness 0, and reduce white point. It’s almost completely unusable in regular lit rooms, but nice in complete darkness (mostly apps like Instapaper). The main issue I have is that blue text is unreadable. I wish you could stack color filters like grayscale first, then red tint.
- jauco 4mo agoThere’s night shift by default in your iphone right? You can use the slider to make it more pronounced.
- anonzzzies 4mo agoI just recently got an eink phone to focus more and work/do stuff in sunlight (always sunny here); samsung and iPhone kept overheating and are barely readable in some cases, even just having a coffee in the morning. It really helps focus on just spending my time in the terminal or in chat for instance and, while it actually really nice to work in one app, switching sucks so it works well. I could not have it as my only device, but next to an iPhone or android, it is been great so far.
- HeartStrings 4mo agoMy addiction isn’t the phone, it’s the computer, Youtube specifically. And I can’t use greyscale due to creative Photoshop work. Kingdom to whomever solves my problem.
- eks391 4mo agoGet yourself a greyscale browser filter so photoshop isn't affected. This is the first result I got; I'm sure there are better ones https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/grayscale-screen/mccgphkdghdpebkjkokhbodbjobpihal https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/grayscale-screen/mc...
- Markoff 4mo agoit is much easier just to set up accessibility color filter and then toggle greyscale mode with Winkey+Ctrl+C and you can keep using your apps without installing anything
- Markoff 4mo agoHow to switch on/off your computer with Windows 10/11 to greyscale mode 1. Press Windows Key + U to open the Accessibility/Ease of Access menu. 2. Click on Color filters on the left pane. 3. Toggle the Turn on color filters switch to On. 4. Select Grayscale from the list of options. (should be preselected by default) 5. Now you can switch on/off greyscale mode anywhere with Windows key+Ctrl+C shortcut.
- Markoff 4mo agoHow to switch on/off your computer with Windows 10/11 to greyscale mode 1. Press Windows Key + U to open the Accessibility/Ease of Access menu. 2. Click on Color filters on the left pane. 3. Toggle the Turn on color filters switch to On. 4. Select Grayscale from the list of options. (should be preselected by default) 5. Now you can switch on/off greyscale mode anywhere with Windows key+Ctrl+C shortcut.
- diimdeep 4mo agoInteresting idea, but it would be nice to preserve very minimal signal from color, tunable as one feels, something like this with Stylus extension: @-moz-document domain("youtube.com") { body { filter: grayscale(95%)contrast(110%); } }
- edbaskerville 4mo agoThis solution is a really great argument for Apple(/Google) just adding per-app color settings.
- garaboncias2 4mo agoFor me grayscale was too radical but you can decrease color intensity too. It also useful for against addiction.