Color Free — Moving to a Grayscale Homescreen

As I recently wrote, I have begun listening to more podcasts. On a recent episode of the Ezra Klein Show I heard guest Tristan Harris mention that he has his phone home screen in a grayscale mode. The basic theory is that the color in your phone is part of what draws you in and psychologically causes you to engage with the apps on your phone. There’s no question that our phones are well (and intentionally) designed to attract our attention — perhaps demand is a better word. I do find this overall “addiction” that we experience unhealthy, so I was interested in this idea.

I’ll be honest that I found the idea that just turning off color was going to make a big difference in my a bit strange and was unconvinced that it would make a real difference. After all, was it really just the color that was drawing me into my phone. On the other hand, it’s clearly true that the “little red badge” for notifications is something that draws your attention quickly — and I find it difficult to ignore. So, I figured I would give it a shot and see what I thought after using this feature for a little while.

However, I have found the change to be quite impactful. The lack of color definitely makes using the phone just feel different — and less appealing. The phone actually feels less interactive somehow. In many ways, it makes the phone feel more like my Kindle — something I use the way I want but doesn’t really dictate or control my interactions itself. So far, I’m really liking this change. I’ll be honest that many times after I flip color back on, I forget to turn it off again and go for a while with the full color screen. But once you’ve been using the gray scale version for a while, the colors really do feel over saturated and intense — it just feels like too much. Sort of the way Vegas feels to me — like stimulation overload.

I recommend giving this a try. Even if you don’t decide to stick with it, it’s an interesting experiment to give it a try. The setting is definitely buried, but here’s how to find it on your iPhone.

Setting -> General -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Shortcut (the very bottom choice). Once you’re there, pick Color Filters. Now, when you triple press the Home/Power button (for those on an iPhone X), your screen will switch between color and gray scale. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!