A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life • Hacker News Board

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#31

Post by omk » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:50 AM UTC

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.

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#32

Post by everly » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:54 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #24

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #8

Can 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.

Never knew that tapping the back of the phone did anything. Yet another Apple convention you only discover by accident?

More 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.

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#33

Post by manwe150 » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:01 AM UTC

N_Lens wrote: post #27

fionic wrote: post #25

Setting up triple click to toggle greyscale on or off in accessibility settings whenever I need color enabled works much better for me

What?! And miss out on setting up 72 automations for different apps that sometimes bug out?

It’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

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#34

Post by manwe150 » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:05 AM UTC

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

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#35

Post by drzaiusx11 » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:07 AM UTC

I 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..

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#36

Post by sphars » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:19 AM UTC

deepvibrations wrote: post #3

This is great, would love to see a similar way to do it in Android.

There'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.

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#37

Post by chrisbrandow » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:23 AM UTC

Clever!

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#38

Post by broof » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:24 AM UTC

fionic wrote: post #25

Setting up triple click to toggle greyscale on or off in accessibility settings whenever I need color enabled works much better for me

Originally 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.

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#39

Post by HerbManic » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:31 AM UTC

Ronsenshi wrote: post #30

Tried 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.

I 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.

Re: A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life

#40

Post by nunez » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

I'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