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by volatilecarbon 703 days ago
The grayscale suggestion is pretty interesting. I was skeptical it would make any difference, but I tried it and my home screen instantly felt more calming to look at at. It seems like we really underestimate how much visual complexity exhausts us.

Not sure how long I'll keep it like that, but I think I'll leave it for now as I've been trying to minimize my phone for a while now (biggest difference was removing social media apps and disabling most notifications). If you're a busy person with a lot of demands on your attention, I highly recommend it.

4 comments

For anyone on Android, you can bind holding down both volume buttons at the same time to toggle grayscale on/off.

To do this, go in Settings, then `Accessibility > Color and motion > Color correction`, and set it to grayscale.

While still in the `Color correction` submenu, click `Color correction shortcut`, set it to `Hold both volume keys`, and toggle it on.

I just discovered this myself, but with the ability to quickly flip it off when needed (taking pictures/watching videos/etc) I may actually end up keeping it enabled this time around.

Can someone explain on an iPhone how to set grayscale? The article doesn’t and I’ve been through the Accessibility settings without any success.
The article mentions enabling Color Filters as a shortcut action via triple-clicking the power button. It just so happens that the default filter is greyscale.

If you want to play around with the other options (or permanently set greyscale), it’s under Settings —> Accessibility —> Display and Text Size —> Color Filters. Or just search Color Filters from the main Settings search bar.

Accessibility> Display & Text Size> Color Filters> On then top option is Grayscale.

Color Filters also has a true no blue mode for night.

It's convoluted for some reason...

Setting -> Accessibility Display & Text Size Colour Filters

edit: Shoulda refreshed before I commented...

accessibility -> display & text size -> Colour Filters.

Turn that on and then you can select "Greyscale" as an option. I have this mapped to the double tap the back of the phone with an accessibility shortcut.

Basically I can double tap the back to toggle greyscale mode.

Accessibility settings make using grayscale easy on iPhone. Three taps on the right button toggles it on/off. Strongly recommend.
I have only 4 apps on my home screen —- calendar, phone, camera and Safari.

I deleted all social media apps years ago.

I’m doing fine most days.

Same-ish, except my dock is Phone, Messages, Camera, and Safari.

I never liked any apps on the screen when I had Android, and liked (and still like) its swipe-for-app-drawer mechanism. It’s unfortunate that on iOS it’s more difficult to have a clean Home Screen, and no options that I’m aware of to get the Android launcher actions.