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Do you often use your iPhone late at night and struggle with eye strain and sleep loss due to the blue light emitted from the screen? Good news! Dark Mode, an interface option that darkens the screen or reduces blue light emissions, is now available to make nighttime viewing easier on your eyes. In this article, we’ll guide you on how to set up and use Dark Mode on iPhone, and offer alternative solutions for those who have not upgraded to iOS 13 yet.
What Is Dark Mode and How to Set it Up
Dark Mode is a system-wide interface control that darkens the background of all pre-installed apps to black or dark grey. To use Dark Mode on your iPhone, make sure you have upgraded to iOS 13 or a later version. To enable Dark Mode:
- Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
- At the top of the next screen, choose Light or Dark, depending on whether you want to use the light or dark interface.
- You can manually set Dark Mode by tapping on it, or set a schedule based on the time of day or sunset/sunrise times by choosing the Automatic option.
- To turn on or off Dark Mode manually, simply use Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner (on notched iPhones) or the bottom of the screen (on iPhones with a Home button) and tapping the Dark Mode icon.
Third-party app developers may also set their apps to be affected by Dark Mode, which could help reduce eye strain and save battery life on OLED screens.
Alternative Solutions for iOS 12 and Earlier
If you haven’t upgraded to iOS 13 yet, you can use the following solutions to improve nighttime viewing:
Invert Colors
Invert Colors is a feature that turns the white interface elements black and vice versa, which is a rough equivalent of Dark Mode. Simply go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Invert Colors and toggle on Smart Invert to try it out.
Night Shift
Introduced in iOS 9.3, Night Shift reduces blue light emissions to prevent eye strain and headaches. You can use it by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift and setting a schedule for it, or allowing it to adjust automatically based on your location.
Low Light and Grayscale Filters
These Accessibility options can be found in Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations. Low Light filter makes your screen darker, while Grayscale mimics Dark Mode to some extent. Other color filters with adjustable intensity levels are also available for experimenting.
FAQs
Can I customize my Dark Mode schedule?
Yes, in the Display & Brightness settings, choose the Automatic option and then tap Options to set up a custom schedule based on specific times of the day.
Do all third-party apps support Dark Mode?
No, while third-party developers are encouraged to make their apps compatible with Dark Mode, not all apps have implemented it yet. However, popular apps like WhatsApp and Twitter have already adopted this feature.