I 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.)
Using 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.
I'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.
I’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.
This 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!
Probably 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.
Doubtful, 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%
Have 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.
This 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
I use that. It’s nice. I just wish I could mix it with black and white mode because the way the filter works makes blue things unreadable and it generally messes with color rendering more than it would need to.
Zoom's filter applies before Color Filters, so a workaround is to toggle on zoom, set it to greyscale, then use the 3 finger gesture to zoom out to 100%.
I 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.
My 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.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 56.9 ms ] threadThis 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.
Makes taking and looking at photos nice.
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
(The app catalog is also open source)
Removes a lot of purposefully rewarding/manipulating haptics. Makes a phone feel "quiet" and easier to put down.
If it makes you use your device less, then you do save energy a bit.
Grayscale was a functional problem because some pics communicate with color (like colored maps) so it nudged me away
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.
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.
I love it, mostly because it forces me to use phone less..
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
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.