5 Apps that Bring Apple’s Night Shift to Android Phones

You probably have heard of Apple’s Night Shift feature that debuted with iOS 9.3 during the launch of iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

With Night Shift, the system limits the amount of blue light that is emitted from the screen of the iPhone such that your eyes do not strain when reading or watching something. In this way, it is easier to fall asleep even after heavy usage of the phone during the few hours or minutes leading to night fall.

This might sound kind of stupid. However, studies have proven on more than one occasions that exposure to bright blue light just before going to bed can have a damaging effect on your efforts of falling asleep. It is believed that one can take up to one more hour before falling asleep thanks to the messed-up melatonin levels brought about by habitual checking of phones and tablets before bedtime.

What Night Shift does is automatically reduce the amount of blue light produced at nightfall so that checking your device doesn’t affect your ability to sleep. The light produced is warmer and cooler on the eyes and there is a way you can bring this to Android. Since the feature is currently not baked into any Android OS as with the latest iOS 9.3, there are a number of apps that can help you get the Night Shift-like feature on Android device and here are the best five.

Night Shift: Blue Light Filter

Available for free on the Google Play Store, the Night Shift: Blue Light Filter is crystal clear with what it does. It also borrows Apple’s name and it comes in a simpler option of having Night Shift on Android. The app lets you control the amount of blue light smartphone screens emit. It is possible to set different lighting settings for day and night and you can easily turn it on and off with a single tap.

Night Shift (BlueLight)

A very simple and easy to use app, Night Shift (BlueLight) has three modules – color temperature adjustment, schedule, and filtering. The filtering option is meant to turn the filter on and off while the scheduler is meant for you to set the expected start and stop times over which the filter operates. The other option is meant for changing the color temperature from more warm to less warm.

Twilight

Rated as one of the best screen filters, Twilight will make your phone’s display adaptive or rather responsive to surroundings. It will automatically change the display depending on the time of the day and in the process playing around with the amount of blue light emitted. There is the option to take care of things manually, but you can always let Twilight do its thing with respect to the position of the sun.

Twilight allows users to save their settings in profiles and activate them at different times of the day and to make the deal sweeter, it is available for free. There is, however, a Pro version that offers more and is usually the first to receive any updates and new features.

Eye Filter – Blue Light

As the name suggests, the Eye Filter app focuses more on reducing the strain on the eyes. It does so by allowing users apply a translucent color on top of the screen. The brightness and amount of blue light emitted can be adjusted manually. There are four options for making adjustments – turning the Eye Filter on and off, adjusting the opacity from 0-100%, choosing between colors Brown, Grey, and Black as well as setting a schedule. This app’s performance heavily relies on user’s preferred choices, which is contrary to many other apps that prefer to take care of things automatically.

Midnight (Night Mode)

Midnight is another app you can use to reduce eye strain on Android devices. In addition to cutting down on the intensity of blue light emissions, you will also be able to enjoy great screen color temperatures thanks to its color filters. You will be able to access controls right from the app drawer as well as the Automatic mode. The latter will mean the app detects your current settings and automatically applies the desired filter.