This hidden iOS setting cured my telephone habit

My display screen time is a tough tablet to swallow. Between working on-line all day, studying my Kindle at evening, and going by way of the motions of being a Zillennial simply making an attempt to coordinate film evening with my associates, the hours I spend looking at a display screen are sufficient to make any modern-day optometrist slightly dizzy.

And that is not even accounting for the social media scrolling that strikes every time I am ready for software program to load. It is unconscious at this level — ready for a single e-mail to come back by way of instantly turns into six Instagram Reels earlier than I regain management of my consciousness once more.

Muscle reminiscence and dopamine spikes are the culprits, positive, however it’s not like I put too many limitations between me and the doomscroll. It’s miles too straightforward to entry my social media apps, and I am unable to simply delete them — I am a social media supervisor, in any case. So somewhat than imposing cut-off dates I would just ignore, I tweaked two tiny settings that tricked me out of my scrolling tendencies: app look and labels.

Radical app look adjustments

As a result of the grayscale trick is not practical

Anybody I’ve ever recognized who’s put their telephone in grayscale mode has lasted a few week earlier than flooding their display screen with shade once more. Certain, it makes addictive apps much less interesting, however it additionally makes it borderline not possible to take (and take a look at) photos, watch movies, or do any form of on-line procuring. It is true that grayscale can lower display screen time, however it does so by making your machine depressing to make use of — and there is undoubtedly a greater manner to do this with out the distress issue.

iOS 18 launched the power to mass-change your telephone’s app look and create a cohesive, aesthetic residence display screen with colours of your selection. Most individuals I do know opted for shiny electrical purples or serene sage greens — each screamed aesthetic — however shiny colours are nonetheless attention-grabbing. If my Instagram app is instantly turquoise, it is nonetheless going to catch my eye (and the following half-hour of my time). Good begin, Apple.

However iOS 26 made the looks choices even higher with Liquid Glass, and at last tempted me sufficient to stray from the colourful defaults of my favourite apps. That is how I by chance found my anti-addiction repair: I used to be taking part in with completely different colours and transparencies for my apps after I realized I used to be late for an appointment. Within the panic that adopted, I did not have time to select the right shade and actually ran out the door with my residence display screen tinted a muddy gray-brown.

After a number of hours, the colour had form of grown on me (it matched the autumn vibes) however I observed that my eyes weren’t getting snagged by the pinks, purples, and yellows of Instagram. I could not even discover TikTok’s well-known music-note icon. X vanished someplace within the chaos of my app hoard, and even Slack evaded my consideration for a number of hours… sorry, boss.

The epiphany got here with slightly frustration: I finished scrolling and began counting on the search bar as an alternative. However that motion alone made each app faucet an intentional transfer somewhat than a unconscious reflex.

To vary your homescreen look, observe these steps:

1. Click on and maintain clean area in your iPhone’s homescreen.
2. When the apps begin to jiggle, faucet Edit within the higher left-hand nook.
3. Choose Customise from the dropdown.
4. Choose Tinted, after which drag the sliders to decide on between colours and lightness.

I adopted this up with one other refined tweak, and it ended up being the cherry on prime.

Take away app names

An actual guessing sport if you do not know all of your apps

To make discovering sure apps even tougher, I erased all of the labels from my residence display screen. To take action, observe the identical steps as above and discover the top-right toggle displaying a small sq. subsequent to a bigger one. This allows you to select between smaller icons with names beneath, or larger icons with no labels in any respect.

To begin with, I similar to the way in which the larger icons look. However now, if I scroll to my third web page of apps (lots of which I obtain for articles and barely contact afterward), I am unable to even inform what half of them are with out opening them. It creates another impediment between my itch for a fast scroll and the app that might scratch it.

Different tweaks I discovered useful

There’s an alternative choice on the alternative facet of the icon-size toggle: gentle versus darkish. I do not imply the system-wide Gentle vs. Darkish Mode — that comes later. This one adjustments the refined background tone of your private home display screen. Whereas the distinction is minor, the darker model is simpler on the eyes and dampens any visible noise behind your apps.

Then, I went to the underside of the customization menu to decide on Auto as an alternative of Gentle or Darkish. I appreciated the look of my tinted apps throughout the day, however the slight shift when the solar goes down offers my display screen an entire new aura and makes my social feeds even much less tempting. It is simpler on my eyes and retains me from getting too comfy with the structure.

These refined variations are sufficient that I’ve observed I’m spending much less time doomscrolling and extra time writing in my Notes app — my favourite (and way more productive) pastime.