How to turn off blue light on iPhone
Set your iPhone to go red at sunset and back to normal at sunrise, automatically. It uses the built-in color filters and the Shortcuts app — no third-party apps, no recurring fee.
Table of contents
Why red screen instead of Night Shift?
Night Shift just warms your screen up a bit — it's still leaking plenty of blue. A red filter cuts it out entirely, which is the part that actually matters for your melatonin and your sleep.
Step 1: Enable red color filter
First, configure the red screen filter in your iPhone settings:
- Open Settings
- Go to Accessibility
- Tap Display & Text Size
- Select Color Filters
- Turn on Color Filters
- Choose Color Tint
- Adjust the Intensity and Hue sliders to create a red tint
💡 Tip: Test how the red screen looks using our red screen tool before setting up the shortcuts.
Step 2: Create sunset automation
Set up automation to turn on red screen at sunset:
- Open the Shortcuts app
- Tap the Automation tab at the bottom
- Tap the + button in the top right
- Select Time of Day
- Choose Sunset
- Set Repeat to Daily
- Tap Next
- Tap New Blank Automation
- Search for and add Set Color Filters
- Make sure it says Turn colour filters On
- Tap Done
- Toggle off Ask Before Running and confirm
Step 3: Create sunrise automation
Set up automation to turn off red screen at sunrise:
- In the Automation tab, tap the + button again
- Select Time of Day
- Choose Sunrise
- Set Repeat to Daily
- Tap Next
- Tap New Blank Automation
- Search for and add Set Color Filters
- Make sure it says Turn colour filters Off
- Tap Done
- Toggle off Ask Before Running and confirm
Final result
Your automations are now set up. You should see both in the Automation tab:
Bonus: Manual control with accessibility shortcut
Set up a quick shortcut to manually toggle the red screen on or off anytime:
- Go to Settings
- Tap Accessibility
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut
- Select Colour Filters
💡 How to use: Now you can triple-click the side button (or home button on older iPhones) to instantly turn the red screen on or off. This is useful if you want to disable it temporarily during the evening or enable it before sunset.
How the automation works
Once it's set up, you can forget about it. At sunset your screen turns red. At sunrise it goes back to normal. The sunset and sunrise times follow your location, so it shifts through the year on its own. And because you turned off "Ask Before Running," it does this quietly in the background — no pop-ups, no taps.
On a Mac too?
The same idea, but you don't have to wire it up yourself. Lumiv shifts your Mac screen based on your location and the time of day — easier on your eyes while you work, out of the way of your sleep at night.
Download Lumiv for Mac