If you feel glued to Instagram, TikTok or endless news feeds, you’re not alone. Designers intentionally use bright colors, red badges, and vibrant thumbnails to keep you tapping and scrolling. Color acts like a reward cue for your brain, making your phone feel exciting and hard to put down.
Switching your phone to grayscale mode flips that script.
Grayscale removes all color from your screen, turning everything black, white and gray. Suddenly:
- Apps look dull instead of delicious
- Notifications feel less urgent
- Scrolling loses its “just one more” allure
And this isn’t just a TikTok hack it’s backed by actual science.
Screen colors keep you hooked but grayscale takes the thrill out
Several studies have now tested what happens when people switch to black-and-white screens:
- A college study found that using a grayscale display significantly reduced screen time, making phones feel less gratifying and easier to control.
- An experimental study on people with problematic smartphone use showed that grayscale helped reduce both phone time and problematic use scores.
- A 2024 study concluded that grayscaling reduced daily screen time, lowered stress, and improved people’s sense of control over their phones.
Why it works:
- No bright reds to trigger “open me now”
- No colorful thumbnails to pull you into hours of Reels or Shorts
- Social apps stop feeling like candy and start feeling like… a tool
You can still text, call, and check maps but the endless dopamine loop of “scroll-refresh-scroll” becomes weaker.
The world feels colorful again
People who try grayscale often describe a surprisingly emotional shift:
- A TechRadar writer who switched to grayscale at night found it easier to stop doom scrolling and go to sleep, because the phone suddenly felt less appealing than their offline life.
- A feature on digital wellbeing reported users saying they became less anxious and less glued to social media once they grayscaled their phone.
- Online communities like netsurf are full of posts like: “I finally find the world around me colorful again real life feels more exciting than my phone.”
In other words, when your phone loses its color, your offline life gets it back.
How to turn on grayscale (and where the setting hides)
Exact steps differ by device, but the logic is similar: you either use Accessibility or Digital Wellbeing/Focus settings.
On most iPhones (iOS)
- Open Settings
- Go to Accessibility
- Tap Display & Text Size (or Vision on some versions)
- Tap Color Filters
- Turn Color Filters ON and select Grayscale
Pro tip: Go to Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut and choose Color Filters. Now, triple-click the side or Home button to quickly toggle grayscale on/off.
On many Android phones
Paths vary by brand, but try one of these:
Option 1 Digital Wellbeing / Bedtime mode
- Open Settings
- Tap Digital Wellbeing & parental controls
- Look for Bedtime mode or Focus mode
- In Bedtime mode, enable Grayscale (sometimes called “Desaturate screen”)
Option 2 – Accessibility / Color correction
- Open Settings
- Go to Accessibility
- Tap Color and motion or Color correction
- Choose a Grayscale or Monochrome option and switch it on
If you can, schedule grayscale to kick in automatically at night. Your brain gets a clear signal that it’s time to log off.
Why it’s worth experimenting (and what to combine it with)
Grayscale isn’t magic, but it’s a low-effort, high-impact nudge. Studies on digital wellbeing show that combining small changes works best: turning off non-essential notifications, moving social apps off the home screen, and using grayscale together reduces phone time more than tracking apps alone.
Try this 7-day experiment:
- Turn on grayscale full-time, or at least every evening.
- Mute non-urgent notifications (social media, shopping, games).
- Move your most addictive apps to a second or third screen, not the home screen.
- When you feel the urge to scroll, pause and ask: “What do I actually need right now?” (rest, a walk, a call with a friend?)
- At the end of the week, check your screen time stats and how you feel.
If you struggle with serious compulsive use or it affects your work, relationships or mental health, grayscale can help but it’s not a substitute for professional support. Think of it as a gentle brake pedal, not the entire solution.
The tiny tweak that makes your phone boring and your life bigger
The beauty of the grayscale trick is its simplicity:
- No new app
- No complex rules
- No throwing your phone away
Just one change in your settings that makes your phone a little less shiny and your real life a lot more inviting.
If you’ve been wanting to beat your scrolling addiction without going full “digital monk,” grayscale is a smart, science-backed place to start.