Skip to main content

Hands On With iOS 9.3’s Blue Light Filter, Night Shift

ios ipad iphoneEarlier this week Apple announced that iOS 9.3 was coming soon and would bring with it better security, a blue light filter, and a new cloud features for iBooks.

The beta version of iOS 9.3 was released to users today, Friday. I’ve installed it, and I wanted to show you what Night Shade looked like. It’s not half as feature-rich as Amazon’s Blue Shade or the now-verboten f.lux, but it is not bad for a feature which was conceived and developed in only a few weeks.

You can enable Night Shade from the iOS settings menu, where it is found under "Display & Brightness". (It is not shown on the "swipe-up" function menu like one might expect.)

Here’s a gallery of before and after photos taken around 11am local time. As you can see, you can enable Night Shade in the middle of the day if you so choose. That is a feature that Amazon’s Blue Shade lacks.

And sorry for the lack of screenshots; they don’t show the effect of the filter.

It’s difficult to see the difference in the photos, but it is there and soon you too might have it.

According to iDownload blog, Night Shift mode only works on iDevices released in 2013 and later. This includes the iPad Air and later models, the iPad Pro, iPad Mini 2 and later models, the sixth-generation iPod Touch, and the iPhone 5s and later iPhone models.

If you have an older iDevice, then you should check out my post on apps that have this feature.

And if you have an older iDevice which is already jailbroken, they say you can install one of the jailbreak tweaks that serve the same purpose. iDownload published a tutorial on sideloading f.lux on iOS devices that would be a good place to start.

F.lux is the better overall solution because it works system-wide, while the apps can only have an affect while you use them.

Similar Articles


Comments


Chris Meadows, Editor of Teleread January 15, 2016 um 3:04 pm

Just sayin'.


Chris Meadows, Editor of Teleread January 15, 2016 um 3:05 pm

Huh. Attempted a Youtube embed, but I guess it didn’t work.

Oh well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs


Frank January 15, 2016 um 3:11 pm

Does night shift work system wide? So does the launcher and all apps show less blue light?

Nate Hoffelder January 15, 2016 um 3:21 pm

Yes, it is system-wide.


Syn January 16, 2016 um 1:30 am

Samsung had this on my Galaxy Note 8 back in 2013 call reader mode. Its pretty tailored as you can have it on or off in various apps like kindle reader and my browser it’s always on, Steam it’s off. I can see why Apple is playing catch up to Amazon, but surprised it took Amazon so long to add it being they are about the reader experience. Better late than than never. Can’t wait to try it on my iPad Pro. It is quite harsh to me.


Hands On With Kobo Aura One Night Mode (video) | The Digital Reader August 30, 2016 um 6:11 pm

[…] modes were a hot topic in the ebook world last year. Amazon, Google, and even Apple released updates for Android, iOS, and Fire tablets which added optional bluelight […]


Write a Comment