Change your screen colour at night on a Pixel phone

To save your phone’s battery and to make the screen easier to use in dim light, adjust the screen colours. Your phone’s Dark theme, Night Light and Grayscale can help you use your phone at night and make it easier to fall asleep.

Important: Some of these steps work only on Android 9 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

The Pixel battery continuously learns your behaviours and optimises itself based on your most recent app usage. When you set up a new device or after a factory reset, optimisation may take up to a few weeks to take full effect. For best results keep Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimisation on.

It's normal for your Pixel battery to drain a little more than usual after a software update. This is because the phone is working hard to download and optimise the new software and get everything up and running.

If you still experience unusual battery drain after a few days, please let us know and we'll be happy to help.

Automatically darken your phone’s background and apps

To make your phone’s background darker, switch to Dark theme. You can schedule Dark theme to turn on every night.

Important: When you use apps that work with Dark theme, it might extend your phone’s battery life. Apps that don’t work with Dark theme can’t help with battery life. Also, sunset to sunrise scheduling won’t work if you turn off Location Services.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Display Dark theme.
3. Tap Schedule.
4. Select Turns on at custom time, Turns on from sunset to sunrise, or Turns on at bedtime.

In Android 13 and later versions, you can schedule Dark theme to turn on automatically when Bedtime mode is on.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Display Dark theme.
3. Tap Schedule Turns on at bedtime.

Tip: To stop Dark theme from turning on automatically, tap Schedule None.

Important: To ensure that Bedtime mode works properly:

1. Update to the newest version of the Digital Wellbeing app.
2. In your phone's Settings app, turn on notifications for Digital Wellbeing.

Learn more about Digital Wellbeing controls.

Tip: Dark theme, Night Light, and Bedtime mode are available as Quick Settings on your phone.

Automatically dim your phone's wallpaper

Important: When Battery Saver is on, the wallpaper will dim.

In Android 13 and later versions, you can dim your phone's wallpaper at bedtime.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Digital Wellbeing and parental controls.
3. Tap Bedtime mode.
4. Turn on Bedtime mode.
5. Tap Customise Screen options at bedtime.
6. Turn on Dim the wallpaper.

Automatically change your screen to Night Light or amber

To make it easier to use your phone in dim light, you can reduce your screen’s blue colour. Blue light may make it harder to fall asleep. You can turn your screen red or amber with Night Light, which can help your eyes adjust to night vision more smoothly. 

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Display Night Light.
3. To pick start and end times, tap Schedule.
   • To turn on at a custom time, tap Turns on at a custom time. Then enter your 'Start time' and 'End time'.
   • To turn on from sunset to sunrise, tap Turns on from sunset to sunrise. Sunset to sunrise scheduling won’t work if you turn off Location Services.

To stop night mode from turning on automatically, tap Schedule  None.

Tip: To change your screen colour to Grayscale, find out about Bedtime mode.

Automatically change your screen to Grayscale

To help you wind down at night, turn on Greyscale to change your phone's screen to black and white.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Digital Wellbeing and parental controls.
3. Tap Bedtime mode.
4. Turn on Bedtime mode
   1. In Android 13 and later versions, tap Customise  Screen options at Bedtime.
5. Turn on Greyscale.

Tip: Dark theme, Night Light and Bedtime mode are available as Quick Settings on your phone.

Change your theme yourself

If you want to change the settings on your own, you can turn the themes on or off at any time.

1. Open your phone's settings app.
2. Tap Display.
3. Tap your screen colour option:
   • Under 'Appearance', turn on Dark theme.
   • Under 'Colour', turn on Night Light.

Related resources

• Manage how you spend time on your phone
• Keep clock on with screen dimmed
• Manage screen and display settings