Dim the colours on your Mac, iPad and iPhone for better nighttime viewing,
With Dark Mode on Mac and Apple TV, and Time Shift on the iPad and iPhone you can reduce eye strain and improve your nighttime viewing experience, here's how this is how to go about it with ease.
Apple brought Night Shift, which reduced the level of blue light being emitted by the iPad and iPhone, to iOS 9.3 and it’s a feature rumoured to be coming to MacOS soon.
The colour-shifting technology reduces the blue light that is emitted from the iPad and iPhone screen - and when it comes to macOS the Mac screen.
This blue light is said to keep us awake and cause eye-strain and headaches. The Night Shift technology reduces this blue light, making the screen colours appear warmer and more yellowy. Night Shift is thought to help those suffering from insomnia because the blue light affects our circadian rhythms. It’s why we generally sleep at night and stay awake in the daytime. The problem is that because we all lay in bed looking at our iPads and iPhones all night we can’t sleep because the blue light being emitted is telling our brings it’s still daytime. It also has to be said that looking at a the bright screen of our iPhones and iPads once we have turned off all other light sources, coupled with the fact that we are likely to be reading small black text on a white background, is sure to be damaging to our eyes.
There is also a technology called Dark Mode that arrived on the Mac in OS X Yosemite back in 2014, but Night Shift, should it arrive on the Mac, will do much more than Dark Mode which turns the menu bar and dock dark grey on your Mac and the text on those elements of the interface becomes white.
Dark Mode is nevertheless a popular feature (particularly with designers who tend to perfer to tone down the interface). Dark mode isn't available on the iPad and iPhone, yet (it's rumoured to be coming at some point). There are some workarounds to get Dark Mode on the iPhone and iPad however, and we discuss them below.
Is Night Shift the same as Dark Mode?
No. Dark Mode turns the menu bar and dock dark grey on your Mac and the text on those elements of the interface becomes white. It was introduced in OS X Yosemite back in 2014, and like Night Shift was designed to reduce eye strain. It isn’t possible to schedule this feature though.Night Shift adjusts the colour over all, while Dark Mode just changes some elements of the interface.
In this tutorial we will cover the following:
- How to turn on Night Shift on the iPhone and iPad
- How to turn on Night Shift on the Mac
- How to turn on Dark Mode on the Mac
- How to enable Dark Mode on the Apple TV
- What is Theatre Mode?
- How to turn on Dark Mode on iPhone & iPad?
- How to turn on Low Light Filter in iOS
- When is Dark Mode coming to the iPad & iPhone?
Does Night Shift work?
It’s hard to say if Night Shift will help you sleep if you have difficulty dropping off. And as for reducing eye strain, it’s probably just as bad that we read tiny text on our iPhones, making us all near sighted. The best way to sleep well at night is probably to leave your iPhone, iPad or Mac in another room…How to turn on Night Shift on the iPhone and iPad
Step 1: Update your iPhone or iPad
If your iPad or iPhone is running software that predates iOS 9.3 you will need to update in order to use Night Shift. Go to Settings > General > Software Update to see what version of iOS you are running and to update if necessary.If your iPhone or iPad is too old to run iOS 9, there is an app called F,lux, but it requires you to jailbreak your phone, but we don’t recommend that (although we do have this article about
Step 2: Schedule Night Shift on iPad & iPhone
Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Nightshift. From here you'll be able to setup a schedule, where you'll be able to add a custom time frame or have the iOS device automatically determine your location and have Night Shift enabled when its Sunset and Sunrise.Some people have reported that this option is not being shown to them and this is because location services aren't being picked up by your time zone. To fix this, go into: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and then find Setting Time Zone and ensure that's toggled on.
Step 3: Turn on Night Shift on iPad & iPhone
Alternatively, you can manually enable Night Shift until tomorrow and adjust the Colour Temperature through the slider, with More Warm being easier on the eyes an Less Warm perhaps being a good option on a very sunny day.If you wish to quickly enable it, Apple has conveniently added it to the Control Center which can be accessed in any app, homescreen or lockscreen by simply swiping up from the bottom of your screen. Simply tap the centre light icon to enable Night Shift. We do suggest going into the settings and manually adjusting the level of warmth you wish have, so that your device remembers the setting when you want to quickly toggle it on. Read next: iOS 9 features & update advice.
How to turn on Night Shift on the Mac
Step 1: Download the macOS Sierra beta
As with the iPhone and iPad, Night Shift on the Mac is designed to help reduce eye strain if you are prone to using your Mac late at night. The feature is coming to macOS Sierra soon - in fact it’s already available in the beta preview of macOS 10.12.4 (mac OS Sierra Beta 4) so you can try it out now if you have joined Apple’s beta seed program.Step 2: Turn on Night Shift on the Mac
If you are running the Mac OS Sierra beta 4 you will be able to enable Night Shift on your Mac, here’s how:Click on Notification Centre over on the top right of your Mac. (You can also open Notification Centre by swiping to the left from the right side of your trackpad).
The option to turn on Night Shift should have joined the Do Not Disturb option at the top of Notification Centre, if it’s not there scroll down a bit.
Switch Night Shift from On from Off to enable Night Shift.
Step 3: Schedule Night Shift on the Mac
You can also schedule Night Shift on your Mac by going to System Preferences > Displays and clicking on the new Night Shift tab.In the drop down menu that appears you can choose the Sunset to Sunrise option or crate your own custom schedule.
How to use Night Shift to change colour tones on your Mac
It’s also possible to change the colour tone of your Mac using Night Shift. Go to System Preferences > Displays and click on Night Shift. Next select Manual in order to turn on Night Shift until sunrise tomorrow morning. As with the iPad and iPhone you will get the option to use the slider to change the warmth of the colour temperature.
How to turn on Dark Mode on the Mac
To turn on Dark Mode on a Mac go to System Preferences > General and choose Use dark menu bar and Dock.macOS should now be running in Dark Mode. Remove the tick from Use Dark Menu Bar and Dock to return to regular mode.
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