FRESH

Hacker News

Home

Go Gray, Not Cray: Why You Should Grayscale Your Phone

78 points by samieljabali

by shubhamjain

3 subcomments

I 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.

by RijilV

0 subcomment

I 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.

by ivansavz

0 subcomment

I'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.

by grim_io

1 subcomments

My 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.

by et1337

2 subcomments

I 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.

by ksec

0 subcomment

I 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?

by Brajeshwar

0 subcomment

This 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/
2. https://brajeshwar.com/books/
3. https://brajeshwar.com/2025/notes/
4. https://brajeshwar.com/2024/watch-tiny-handy-computer/

by charlie-83

3 subcomments

This 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.

by superb-owl

0 subcomment

Just 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

by pjmlp

0 subcomment

As 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

by treetalker

1 subcomments

Works great with iOS's double/triple tap on the back feature.

by polishdude20

0 subcomment

What about a feature that randomized the app locations on your home screen every time you open it? That way, no muscle memory develops.

by parentheses

1 subcomments

I 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.

by Bridged7756

1 subcomments

Didn't work for me. App blocker from 9:30 PM - 5 PM. 30 mins Max a day of short form content apps.

by mistercow

2 subcomments

> 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?

by joecool1029

0 subcomment

I 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.

by 4b11b4

0 subcomment

On android this is easy you can add a button to the bottom nav bar

by drekipus

0 subcomment

I 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

by nine_k

3 subcomments

«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?

by scotty79

0 subcomment

Vibrant 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.

by catlikesshrimp

3 subcomments

Decades 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?

by wizardforhire

1 subcomments

You 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.