An open letter
Viewing apps in color makes them more addictive, particularly social media apps. Changing your whole phone to grayscale can help, but most people need certain work and personal apps in color.
iOS needs a per-app grayscale setting.
Give us a per-app grayscale toggle in Settings. This simple change could improve mental health for all of us.
Multiple peer-reviewed studies demonstrate that grayscale reduces smartphone overuse.
"Grayscale mode significantly reduced daily screen time by an average of 20 minutes, and participants reported feeling more in control of their smartphone use."
Dekker & Baumgartner (2024). "Is life brighter when your phone is not?" — Mobile Media & Communication
"Using grayscale as an intervention led to a significant reduction in problematic smartphone use, with participants showing decreased compulsive checking behaviors."
Holte & Ferraro (2023). "Suffering from problematic smartphone use? Why not use grayscale setting as an intervention!" — Technology in Society
"App designers leverage color psychology to trigger dopamine releases — bright colors stimulate excitement and create an addictive cycle where the brain craves small visual rewards."
Montag & Becker (2023). "Striatal dopamine synthesis capacity reflects smartphone social activity." — Addictive Behaviors
"Pharmacy students who switched to grayscale showed a significant reduction in psychological attraction to their smartphones and reported lower urges to check them."
Alsalem et al. (2023). "An Intervention Utilizing the Salience Principle." — American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
We decided not to make this a petition, since people don't love sharing emails.
What we think will work better:
If you have friends who work in tech, send them this site.
If you have friends who work at Apple, definitely send them this site!
If you have friends who do or don't work anywhere, also send them this site.
Sign up to our free substack for updates on the effort — RecursiveAdaptation.com
You can technically set up per-app grayscale today using iOS Shortcuts automations, but it's very tedious and doesn't work well.