iPhone’s Secret “Night Vision” Mode: Transforming Your Screen Red
TL;DR: The iPhone’s hidden “night vision” mode turns the screen red, reducing eye strain and fatigue, especially at night. Enable it in Accessibility settings or use shortcuts for quick access.
The iPhone boasts a concealed “night vision” feature that transforms your screen red. Beyond providing a spy movie ambience, a red screen could aid in sharpening people’s night vision by diminishing the detrimental impact of the bright displays we gaze at all day.
This is particularly beneficial at night and when we first awaken, as the regular light emitted by the iPhone can cause fatigue and damage our eyes. Apple already provides some built-in options to safeguard our eyes, including:
- Warning when the iPhone is too close to your face
- Night Mode, which reduces blue light and fatigue
- True Tone, which adjusts the display colour based on your surroundings
- Dark mode, which replaces bright whites with black or dark grey colours, reduces eye strain
The Benefits of a Red Screen
Nevertheless, there are advantages to turning your iPhone screen red. The colour is more challenging to perceive than other light frequencies, tricking our eyes into believing it’s less bright than it is. In a dark room, for instance, your pupils won’t need to adjust as much to the light. Moreover, when you look away, your eyes adapt more quickly to the surrounding darkness.
Furthermore, this hidden iPhone feature can also be useful when using star map apps for astronomy, discreetly checking your phone in theatres, observing nocturnal animals, or glancing at your phone in the middle of the night.
Enabling the Hidden Night Vision Mode
Considering these benefits, Apple has included this hidden night vision mode. Here’s how you can enable it:
- Open Settings on your iPhone
- In the Accessibility tab, search for Display & Text Size
- Turn on Color Filters and select Color Tint
- Move Intensity and Hue to the far-right position for the full red-screen effect
Quick Access to the Red Screen
Now that you know how to activate this hidden iPhone feature, there are a few options to make turning it on and off more convenient.
Triple Click
On Settings, Accessibility, Accessibility Shortcut, choose Color Filters to triple-click the side button and activate this setting.
Control Center
On Settings, Control Center, and Accessibility Shortcuts, you can add this shortcut to your Control Center, making it just one tap away from switching your display from bright white to red.
Siri to the Rescue
And for those of you who use Siri, you can always ask Apple’s voice assistant to either enable or disable colour filters.
Embrace the red.