How to Make Your Phone Grayscale—and Why It Helps

Short answer

To make your phone black and white, turn on Grayscale in the device’s accessibility or display settings. On an iPhone, go to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters → Grayscale; on many Android phones, search Settings for Color correction or Grayscale, then select it.

Why try it? Removing colour can make feeds, bright app badges, product images, and video thumbnails less visually compelling. Short-term studies suggest grayscale can reduce screen time for some people, but it is a modest environmental change—not a cure, not a productivity guarantee, and not a replacement for notification or app-boundary settings.

Why does a grayscale phone screen help some people use it less?

Your phone still has the same apps, infinite feeds, messages, and recommendations in grayscale. Nothing is blocked. The difference is that the visual invitation is flatter: the red notification dot is no longer red; a colourful short-video thumbnail is no longer colourful; a shopping app loses some of its polish.

That matters most when phone use is automatic rather than intentional. You may unlock the device to check the weather, tap into a feed from habit, and suddenly notice that the feed is not especially rewarding to look at. That moment of noticing is the point. Grayscale is not meant to make technology unpleasant; it is meant to make a reflex a little less frictionless.

There is some evidence behind the idea, with important limits. A 2023 experimental study found lower reported smartphone use after participants used grayscale for at least 24 hours. A separate week-long study found reduced screen time and lower stress, but not fewer daily unlocks. In other words, participants still reached for the phone, yet may have put it down sooner. A 2025 crossover feasibility trial with medical students also found lower average daily screen time during a grayscale week.

These are useful signals, not a universal prescription. The studies are relatively short, and several use particular groups such as students. They do not establish that grayscale improves sleep, mental health, work output, or long-term behaviour for everybody. It can also push a person toward a laptop or tablet instead—one reason to measure the habit you actually want to change rather than celebrate the setting itself.

Think of grayscale as a design adjustment: it reduces one source of pull without taking away your ability to use the phone when you mean to.

How do I make an iPhone grayscale?

Apple includes Grayscale as a Color Filter. It applies across the display, including photos and video, so maps, graphs, camera work, and colour-coded information can become harder to interpret.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display & Text Size.
4. Tap Color Filters.
5. Turn on Color Filters and choose Grayscale.

For most people, the better setup is not “grayscale forever.” Add a quick way back to colour for a task that needs it:

1. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut.
2. Select Color Filters.
3. Triple-click the side button to toggle the filter on or off.

Apple’s wording can vary slightly by iOS version and region. If the route above is not identical on your phone, search Settings for “Color Filters.” Do not confuse Grayscale with Dark Mode, which retains colours, or Night Shift, which warms the display. Neither removes the colour cues that make visual apps stand out.

How do I make an Android phone grayscale?

Android menus differ by phone maker, version, and region. The most reliable first move is to open Settings search and type grayscale, color correction, colour correction, color filter, or bedtime mode. You should not need Developer Options for a current phone.

Pixel and close-to-stock Android

For a manual, all-day switch:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Color and motion.
4. Tap Color correction.
5. Turn it on and choose Grayscale.

For an evening-only approach on Pixel:

1. Open Settings → Digital Wellbeing & parental controls.
2. Tap Bedtime mode.
3. Turn it on and set a schedule.
4. Under the screen options for bedtime, turn on Grayscale.

That scheduled version is often the most humane option. Your phone stays fully usable for daytime navigation, work, or photography, then becomes less enticing during the period when you tend to drift into late-night browsing. Depending on your model, you may be able to add Bedtime mode or Color correction to Quick Settings for faster switching.

Samsung Galaxy and other Android brands

On recent Samsung Galaxy phones, look for a route similar to Settings → Accessibility → Visibility enhancements → Color correction, then select a grayscale option. Labels can change with One UI releases. Other manufacturers may place the setting under Display, Accessibility, Vision, or Digital Wellbeing.

If you cannot find it, use Settings search before downloading an app. A third-party overlay can add permissions, battery use, or awkward visual behaviour when the phone already has a system-level solution.

Which setting should you use?

Will grayscale actually reduce your screen time?

Possibly—but define “work” before you try it. If you want to spend less time on image-heavy social feeds, entertainment recommendations, or shopping apps, grayscale has a plausible target. It may be less useful if your issue is long text conversations, work email, podcasts, or a task that simply moved to another device.

It also does not remove the strongest behavioural drivers. Notifications can still interrupt you. Autoplay still works. An app can still be designed around endless continuation. If a notification is the cue that starts your scroll, use grayscale alongside a notification plan—not instead of one. Our guide to three levels of urgency for phone notifications is a better place to start if every buzz feels equally important.

Do not use a vague feeling of virtue as the outcome. A grey screen can feel like a dramatic intervention on day one, while your actual use remains unchanged. Conversely, your screen-time total may change very little but you may stop opening a particular feed during a working hour—an outcome that could matter more.

Pick one behaviour. Examples:

• “I want to stop opening short-form video after 10 p.m.”
• “I want to finish my first 60 minutes of work without browsing a feed.”
• “I want to stop price-checking items I have no plan to buy.”

For the last example, grayscale is only a supporting tool. A clearer buying boundary, such as the 30-Day Rule for impulse purchases, addresses the decision rather than only the screen’s appearance.

Try this no-purchase, seven-day experiment

Treat this as a small test, not a new identity or a discipline contest.

1. Choose one time window and one unwanted behaviour. Try 9:30 p.m. until bedtime, or the first 90 minutes of your workday. Avoid a full-day experiment at first if you regularly need colour for maps, photos, charts, or work.
2. Record a baseline today. In iPhone Screen Time or Android Digital Wellbeing, note the minutes spent in the two or three apps you are testing. Do not change five other settings at the same time; you want to know what made a difference.
3. Schedule or toggle grayscale for seven days. Use the built-in setting only during the chosen window.
4. Add one physical bit of friction. Put the phone face down and out of arm’s reach during that period. Grayscale reduces visual appeal; distance reduces the automatic reach.
5. Write down two things each day. First, the app minutes. Second, one sentence: “What was I trying to do when I picked up my phone?” The answer may reveal a need for a break, reassurance, information, or avoidance—not simply a colour problem.
6. Review the pattern after seven days. Compare the selected apps with your baseline. If minutes fell or exits became easier, keep the schedule. If you merely migrated to a laptop, change the environment or add a site-level boundary.

This is deliberately low stakes. You do not need a minimalist handset, paid blocker, or a new productivity system to test it. That is why grayscale fits the broader principle in Digital Minimalism Should Not Start With Buying More: first make a reversible change to the device you already own.

When this doesn’t apply

Turn colour back on whenever colour carries important meaning: reading transit or weather maps, interpreting charts, editing photos, shopping for colour-sensitive items, checking a warning indicator, or doing design work. That is not “failing” the experiment. It is using the tool for its actual job.

Grayscale may also be a poor fit if it makes reading harder or creates discomfort. People with colour-vision differences, light sensitivity, migraine, low vision, or other visual-access needs should prioritise readability and comfort. These settings exist first as accessibility features; attention management is an optional secondary use.

Finally, stop if the setting only creates a new workaround. If you turn colour back on every few minutes or shift the same scroll to another screen, choose a more direct intervention. You might remove the feed from the phone while keeping messaging access, or work through the cues in How to Stop Doomscrolling Without Missing What Matters. The best setting is not the strictest one. It is the one that makes your intended use easier to sustain.

Sources and what they support

Apple and Google’s official documentation supports the current setup routes and the distinction between colour filters, Bedtime mode, and inversion. The research articles below report short-term grayscale interventions. Their findings are promising but should be read as evidence for a modest, testable nudge—not a promise of a major or permanent life change.