Screen time
Switch your phone to black and white: the Android and iPhone guide
Switching your screen to black and white is one of the most effective tricks against scrolling: about 39 minutes less per day in a study of 220 students. Here is how to turn it on for every phone, and how to keep it without it becoming a pain.
Why it works
Apps use color to catch the eye: red badges, saturated photos, bright icons. In grayscale, everything becomes equal, and much less tempting. In a study of about 220 students, black and white cut the time spent on the phone by 39 minutes a day (Holte and Ferraro, 2020).
On iPhone
- Open Settings, then Accessibility, then Display & Text Size.
- Tap Color Filters, turn them on, and choose Grayscale.
- To toggle it with one gesture, go to Accessibility, then Accessibility Shortcut, and tick Color Filters: a triple-click on the side button turns black and white on or off.
On Android
Menus change from one brand to another. The quickest way: type “grayscale” or “color” into the settings search.
- Google Pixel: Settings, then Accessibility, then Color and motion, then Color correction, and choose Grayscale.
- Samsung: Settings, then Accessibility, then Visibility enhancements, where you'll find the grayscale option. Its name varies with the version of One UI.
- Xiaomi, and the others: look for “color correction” or “grayscale” in the settings search.
- On every Android, the developer options offer “Simulate color space”, set to “Monochromacy”. You unlock them by tapping the build number seven times, in “About phone”.
For the evening only, Digital Wellbeing's Bedtime mode turns the screen grey at the times you choose.
The catch: the whole phone goes grey
That's where most people give up. Photos, maps, a video sent by a friend: everything loses its colors, so you switch the filter off “just for a moment”, and forget to turn it back on. The solution is to put only the problem apps in grey.
- On iPhone, the Shortcuts app can turn on grayscale whenever a specific app opens: the method is in turn Instagram black and white.
- On Android, Livetime switches Instagram and YouTube to black and white, and leaves the rest of the phone in color.
Frequently asked questions
Does black and white damage the screen or the battery?
No. It's just a display filter, with no effect on the screen. It doesn't noticeably save battery either.
Are screenshots in black and white?
No, on most phones, screenshots and photos keep their colors: only the display changes.
Written by Emile Clement, a student and the creator of Livetime, after two years of testing almost every screen-time solution out there.
