Android 7.0 Nougat Tip: Rest Your Eyes with Night Mode

Like newer versions of Apple’s iOS, Android 7.0 Nougat offers a hidden Night Mode feature that reduces the amount of blue light that your device emits at night. This feature lessens the impact on your natural sleep patterns.

Apple’s similar feature is called Night Shift, and I wrote about that in A Quick Look at iOS 9.3. But Windows PC users have had this kind of functionality for years courtesy of a free third-party utility called f.lux.

The theory behind Night Mode and those other similar solutions is that using bright screens at night impacts our natural sleep patterns, which rely, caveman-like, on the sun’s schedule. That is, by introducing bright light at a time that would otherwise be dark, we’re fooling our bodies into thinking it’s day, making it harder to go to sleep and then obtain high-quality sleep.

I also find the harsh light of digital devices to cause eye strain, and I’ve observed many times while reading on a phone or tablet at night that the simple act of squeezing my eyes shut is actually a bit painful.

Night Mode was included in the pre-release versions of Android 7.0 Nougat, but Google for some reason has hid the feature in the final release. (Curiously, I still see Night Mode in Quick Settings on my Nexus 6P, but it’s notwhere to be found on the Nexus 9.) But anyone with Android 7.0 Nougat can enable it with the Night Mode Enabler app, which is available for free in the Google Play Store.

To configure Night Mode, open the app and select Enable Night Mode. System UI Tuner settings will appear.

Here, you can configure various settings related to Night Mode, such as whether it is enabled automatically when dark. You’ll notice a warm, orange-like tint to the screen when Night Mode is enabled. And hopefully you’ll sleep better too. 🙂

You can also manually enable Night Mode in the Quick Settings area in the notification shade. If you don’t see it there, choose EDIT to add it to the visible choices.