How To Set Your iPhone Screen To Grayscale (And Why You Might Want To)

If you're like most people, chances are you're glued to your phone screen almost 24/7, too. In fact, a survey by health data management company Harmony Healthcare IT shows that the average daily phone screen time for Americans is more than five hours, with Gen Zs clocking in 6 hours and 27 minutes. Naturally, being on your phone all the time can take a toll on both your physical and mental health. You might suffer from eye strain, headaches, and anxiety. So whenever possible, it's a good idea to practice unplugging.

Some iPhone focus apps can help you with this. But if you don't like cluttering your device with third-party apps, there's actually a built-in setting on your iPhone to get you to take your eyes off your screen: grayscale mode. According to different studies, setting your phone screen to grayscale can effectively minimize device use. Here's a quick guide on how to enable this feature on your iPhone.

You can enable grayscale on your iPhone using the Color Filters setting. It's one of the iPhone accessibility features designed to make reading text and telling colors apart easier for users with visual challenges. To set your iPhone screen to grayscale, here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select Accessibility.
3. Under Vision, tap on Display & Text Size.
4. Go into Color Filters.
5. Toggle on Color Filters.
6. Choose Grayscale from the options.
7. Adjust the intensity of the color filter by dragging the slider at the bottom.

Your whole screen will now sport a monochrome look. When you want to switch back to the normal color scheme, just turn off Color Filters. If you'd prefer not to go into Settings every time you want to apply or remove the grayscale filter on your iPhone, just add it as a shortcut in the Control Center for quicker access. Here's how:

1. Swipe down to open the Control Center.
2. Long-press on any empty space.
3. Select Add a Control at the bottom.
4. Search for Color Filters.
5. Tap on it to add it to your Control Center.

From here, whenever you select Color Filter from the Control Center, it will automatically change the screen color to grayscale.