Putting your smartphone’s display into monochrome mode is not just an aesthetic experiment, but also a powerful way to combat digital addiction. When you decide to make a chb screen on Xiaomi’s Android, you’re effectively stripping your brain of the familiar bright stimuli that trigger the release of dopamine every time you look at an app icon, which forces users to spend less time on social media and games, as colorful content loses its appeal in shades of gray.
In addition, for owners of modern OLED and AMOLED arrays, which are equipped with flagship and mid-budget models Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO, this mode promises real battery savings. The black color on these screens means that the corresponding pixels are completely turned off and do not consume energy. Consequently, the use of dark interfaces and black and white mode can significantly extend the battery life of the device during the day without recharging.
In this article, we will take a look at all the ways you can activate this feature, from standard system settings to advanced methods through the engineering menu. You don’t need to be an experienced programmer to change the color scheme of the interface, but it’s important to understand the difference between software emulation and hardware pixel management. We’ll look at the nuances of working with Electronic Paper mode, which simulates electronic ink, and the standard Grayscale mode.
Why you need black and white mode on your smartphone
The main reason why users are looking for a way to make a screen on Android Xiaomi is to reduce the digital voltage. The bright, rich colors of the interface MIUI and HyperOS are specially designed by marketers and designers to keep the attention of the person as long as possible. By switching to monochrome, you turn your smartphone from an entertainment center into a utilitarian tool that you want to use only when you need it.
Also worth mentioning is eye health: the blue light emitted by the screen and the high contrast of color transitions can cause fatigue, especially when reading text at night. Although the system already has a vision protection mode, completely eliminating color creates an effect similar to reading a regular paper book or newspaper, which reduces the strain on the optic nerve and helps avoid headaches after prolonged use of the gadget.
From a technical point of view, activating this mode changes the way images are rendered at the system level. All colors that are normally displayed in 16 million shades are converted into 256 gray gradations. This can be useful not only for recreation, but also for photographers or designers who need to evaluate the composition of a frame or the contrast of an image without the distraction of the color gamut.
- 📉 Reduced time spent on social media and time-eating apps.
- 🔋 Real savings in battery charge on OLED-Displays by disabling colored subpixels.
- 👁️ Reduce eye fatigue and reduce the risk of digital myopia during long-term reading.
- 🧠 Increased focus on real-world tasks due to lack of visual stimuli.
⚠️ Warning: Long-term use of black and white mode can lead to the fact that you get used to it and forget to turn off the feature before watching photos or videos, which will spoil the experience of the content.
Using the built-in capabilities of Digital Wellbeing
The easiest and safest way to make a screen for Xiaomi Android doesn’t require installing third-party software or obtaining root rights. Starting with certain versions of the MIUI 12 shell and later, and in HyperOS, the system has a built-in Digital Well-Being feature, developed by Google and adapted by Xiaomi engineers to help users control screen time.
To activate mode, you go to the main settings of the device and find the partition responsible for the health of the user. The path may vary slightly depending on the firmware version, but the logic remains the same. You need to open the Settings menu, then scroll down to Digital Well-being and Parental Control, and that's where the key feature that instantly turns the display into shades of gray is hidden.
Inside this menu, you'll find an option called "Sleep Mode" or "Sleep Time." Some users mistakenly search for a separate "Black and White Mode" switch, but in the stock Android implementation, it's often tied to a schedule or manually run through the Sleep profile. When you activate this mode, you'll see the colors on the screen fade. It's important to note that in some regions this feature may be called "Rest Mode."
☑️ Checking the Digital Wellbeing settings
The advantage of this method is its deep integration into the system. You do not need to worry about compatibility or stability, since it is a native feature of the Android operating system. In addition, you can set up automatic on and off on a schedule, for example, from 23:00 to 07:00, so that the phone does not interfere with the production of melatonin at night.
Configure Electronic Paper Mode through Additional Features
Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones have a unique advantage over users of other brands - the presence of an integrated mode "Electronic Paper" (Electronic Paper), which is part of the MIUI shell, and allows you not only to discolor the image, but also to change the refresh rate of the screen, making it work like an e-book E-Ink.
To access this setting, go to the Settings menu and select the Additional Features section. In the list of options, you will find the E-Ink Mode. Here you will see a switch that activates monochrome mode, as well as the ability to add a shortcut to the control panel for quick access. This is the most efficient way to make a screen for Xiaomi Android, as it is optimized specifically for processors and displays of this manufacturer.
The Electronic Paper mode is designed to change the algorithms for smoothing fonts and contrast, and it specifically increases the contrast of text to make it clearer and more like print, and it's ideal for reading news, books or documents in bright sunlight, when the screen is flashing and the electronic ink is more readable.
| Parameter | Centre for control | System settings | Electronic ink |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incorporation speed | Instantly. | 1-2 seconds | 1-2 seconds |
| Impact on the battery | High (OLED) | Average. | Maximum. |
| Quality of text | Standard. | Standard. | Improved (E-Ink) |
| Availability | All Android 10+ | All Android 10+ | Only Xiaomi/Redmi/POCO |
It's worth noting that in electronic ink mode, interface animations can become less smooth or be completely disabled to simulate ink refresh delay. This can be annoying when used actively, but great for focusing on reading. You can flexibly customize which apps will run automatically in this mode.
Hidden settings of Electronic Paper
Application of Developer Mode for Global Monochrome
If you don't like standard methods or want to get a tighter color limit, you can use the hidden developer menu, which is a deeper way of making a screen on Xiaomi Android, and it affects the system settings of rendering graphics, and it is useful in cases where you need to test the interface of the application or achieve maximum energy savings.
First, you need to activate the developer menu. Go to Settings. → About the phone and find the line version MIUI (or OS). Press it quickly. 7-10 Once in a row, until the notification "You became a developer" appears, after which a new section will appear in the settings menu. → For developers.
Inside the developer menu, scroll down to the "Hardware Rendering Acceleration" or "Drawing Settings" section. Find the "Simulate Color Space" option. The default is "Disabled." Click on it and select Monochromia. The screen will instantly go black and white in all applications, including those that ignore system themes.
- 🛠️ Opens access to deep system settings of the graphical interface.
- 🎨 Forced to translate into the bb even videos and games that usually ignore sleep.
- 🔄 Allows you to quickly switch between debugging modes and normal use.
- ⚙️ No need to install additional software from the Play Market.
⚠️ Attention: Being on the Developer Menu requires caution. Changing other settings in this section can cause system instability or resetting. Change only the setting "Simulate anomaly».
It's important to understand that this mode is primarily designed to test applications by developers, and can affect the color reproduction of screenshots (they will also be saved in black and white) and sometimes cause micro-twitching of the interface on weak devices, but as a temporary measure to reduce smartphone dependence, it is one of the most powerful tools.
💡
To quickly return color, simply go back to the developer menu and select “Disconnected” in the “Imitate Anomalies” option, or reboot the device – in some versions of MIUI, the settings are reset after restart.
Use of special applications and themes
When built-in tools are not enough or you want more flexible management, third-party applications come to the rescue. How to make a screen for Android Xiaomi is often solved by installing specialized utilities from Google Play. They allow you to create complex scenarios, for example, to include monochrome only for certain applications or geolocation.
One of the most popular solutions is Grayscale Mode (or similar ones like Dayscale), which runs on top of the system, overlaying the filter over the entire image, and the main advantage of this is that you can adjust the filter transparency, so you can make the screen not completely black and white, but only slightly muted, leaving a little color, but removing the brightness.
Another option is to use themes. In the Xiaomi Themes app, you can find black and white themes that change icons and system menus. However, they rarely affect the content inside the applications (for example, the background in the browser will remain white), so the combination of the theme and the filter application gives the best visual result.
When choosing an application, pay attention to the permissions requested. To operate the screen filter, the program will need permission to “Overlap Other Windows” and possibly access to “Special Features.” This is standard practice for such utilities, but only the high-rated programs that are tested should be downloaded to avoid data leakage.
The effect of monochrome mode on the operation of applications
The transition to black and white mode can affect the functionality of various programs in different ways. While text editors, messengers and browsers are only becoming easier to read, multimedia content loses its appeal. YouTube videos or Instagram photos become similar to old newsreels, which, however, is often the goal of the user.
Maps and navigation require special attention. In Electronic Paper mode, maps may become less informative, as the color coding of traffic jams (green/red/yellow) will disappear. Navigation applications like Google Maps or Yandex.Maps can automatically switch to the night theme, but the lack of color markers can be confusing when searching for the desired object.
Games also change their perceptions. Many modern games rely on color cues to indicate health, enemies, or interactive objects. In monochrome mode, these elements can blend into the background, making gameplay difficult or impossible, so avid gamers are advised to turn off the mode before launching gaming applications.
But it's essential to productivity, because office suites, email clients, and black-and-white notes are perceived by the brain as a work environment, not entertainment, and it helps keep the business mindset and get things done faster without being distracted by the bright tinsel of the interface.
⚠️ Note: When using the navigator in black and white, be attentive to text prompts, as color differentiation of route and traffic jams will be absent.