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In Android 10 I had grayscale display turned on. This was achieved by dragging editing the dropdown shade to add the Grayscale tile.

I just updated to Android 11. The display is still in grayscale, but the Grayscale tile is removed, so there doesn't seem to be any way to turn it off! I sometimes want to when using the camera, but then switch back to grayscale for day-to-day use. How can I toggle grayscale in Android 11? Moreover, is there a quick way to do so? The old way (pre-Android 10) involved turning on developer mode and changing a deeply embedded developer setting.

EDIT: There is a new Bedtime Mode tile. When I turned it on and off, color was restored. Turning bedtime mode on goes into grayscale, but also sets Do Not Disturb. So I can turn on grayscale only be entering bedtime mode and then turning off Do Not Disturb. This is less than ideal. Also, bedtime mode only lasts till the following morning. Is there a way to either (a) recover turning on grayscale without bedtime, or (b) change bedtime mode to last until turned off?

Lee Hachadoorian
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5 Answers5

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Actually you can schedule and customize the Bedtime mode.
If you long press the Bedtime mode tile, it'll open the Bedtime mode screen.
enter image description here

  1. In the schedule option, select all the days and in the time select 00.00 to 23.59, so as to keep it on almost the whole day(max. possible time - 23hrs 59 mins a day).
  2. If you tap the Customize option, you can see a way to turn off the DND mode.

That's it, done! Now you can simply tap the Bedtime tile and it'll remain on

Once you've done this, you need not turn off DNS, while enabling Bedtime mode, as it's customized now.

A small point: Bedtime mode turns off an hour before if you've set an alarm, say you set an alarm at 5.00 a.m. Then, the screen turns back colorful at 4.00 a.m. And if you set an alarm daily at that time, schedule bedtime from say, 5.05 to 5.04 or so

19aksh
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    A bit of a hack. This mostly works, but the final "small point" is an annoyance. What if I have multiple alarms during the day, e.g. to wake up in the morning but also for recurring events or meetings? Is there any way to change bedtime mode behavior to not exit one hour before an alarm? – Lee Hachadoorian Nov 03 '20 at 22:35
  • @LeeHachadoorian I think in that case, we have manually tap the bedtime mode after each alarm. I think we can't stop it to not exit before an alarm. It's generally an-hour when I use the "System clock alarm" but when I set an alarm using "Google clock", it turn off exactly at the time when the alarm is kept. So may be you can get rid off that one-hour time. But, yeah it turns off at the time of alarm – 19aksh Nov 04 '20 at 00:21
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This guy in reddit has a great approach: https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9w4xc8/easy_toggle_between_monochrome_and_color_display/

He shares that the Accessibility feature in Android has the ability to easily toggle monochrome in Android 11, even if there's no shortcut available from the pull-down menu. On my Pixel 3, I go to Settings, Accessibility, look for Color Correction, and turn that on to get black and white. Then scrolling down in the Color Correction menu, under Options, select "Color correction shortcut" to either swipe up with two fingers to toggle between monochrome and color, or hold both volume buttons. Enjoy!

Sammy Cakes
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  • The post linked does not say that this applies to Android 11, and the method described does not appear to describe or work with Android 11. I'm pretty sure that this applies to Android 9 or earlier. – Lee Hachadoorian Apr 05 '21 at 18:28
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    Good point, his post is from 2 years ago, but both methods that he mentions (dev mode or accessibility) work for me on my Pixel 3 with Android 11. I don't see the same thing on my Samsung M8 tablet, so maybe this is only for order phones. On Android 11, if you go to Settings, then Accessibility, in the "Display" area, do you have a Color Correction row you can click on, where turning it on turns everything greyscale? I have it on my Pixel 3. Then the best part is having the Color Corrections shortcut, which is in the same Color Corrections activity. – Sammy Cakes Apr 05 '21 at 21:04
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    @Sammy Cakes - I have Android 11 on a Pixel 4, and the color correction option you reference above only provide options to adjust color to compensate for different manifestations of colorblindness. I couldn't find a grayscale option which is composed of only white, black, and the shades between. – somewhatsapient May 15 '21 at 03:25
  • Pixel 3a on Android 12 has grayscale as one of the options for color correction. However, this might not apply to other devices since each manufacturer can customize many things, including developer options and accessibility settings. – Andrew T. May 15 '22 at 02:45
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You can turn on grayscale permanently from the developer options. Go to settings -> about phone -> software information -> click on build number repeatedly until you unlock developer options. Then go back into settings -> developer options and find "simulate color space" under hardware accelerated rendering. You can choose monochromancy there and it will greyscale your phone everywhere without turning off or relying on bedtime mode.

Drew Drozynski
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  • Pixel 3a on Android 12 has this menu. However, this might not apply to other devices since each manufacturer can customize many things, including developer options and accessibility settings. – Andrew T. May 15 '22 at 02:47
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Screenshot

Going along with the first answer @19aksh

You can an add a quick toggle.

So when it's clicked, it just goes into greyscale only, leaving out the no audio and time restraints.

This is a Xiaomi Redmi 10, Android 11

Dameslayer
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Try this app.. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vegardit.grayswitch
Grant it the write secure settings permission through adb and change the settings accordingly.

And if you don't want to use a 3rd party app then try these commands..

  adb shell settings list secure (if not in this then try the other 2)    
  adb shell settings list system       
  adb shell settings list global

and see if there is a option of grayscale. If there is then.. adb shell settings put global <name> 0 to disable and 1 to enable back.

44yu5h
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