How to Make a Black and White Screen on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Turning on black and white on Xiaomi smartphones is not just a visual fad, but an effective way to reduce digital dependence and save battery power. When the screen is stripped of bright colors, it ceases to be a source of dopamine, causing the brain to react less to notifications and colorful app icons. Many users of Redmi and POCO are looking for this feature precisely to stop sticking to social networks and start focusing on real tasks.

There are several ways to get your display into monochrome mode, from standard system settings to hidden engineering menus. In this article, we will take a closer look at each method that is relevant to the MIUI 12, 13, 14 and the latest HyperOS shells. You will learn how to quickly switch modes and what pitfalls can be encountered during the interface setup process.

Before you make any changes, it’s important to understand that removing color completely can temporarily reduce navigational usability, but the effect of this digital detox is worth it, especially if you spend more than 5 hours a day behind the screen.

⚠️ Warning: Long-term use of black and white can tire your eyes when reading text due to reduced contrast between interface elements, so it is recommended to take breaks.

Using Digital Well-Being to Limit Color

The easiest and safest way to turn your Xiaomi screen into an e-book is to use the built-in Digital Well-Being tool, which was originally designed to combat smartphone addiction, but it's perfect for our purposes, too. You don't need superuser rights or third-party software.

To activate, go to the settings menu and look for Digital Well-Being and Parental Control, and inside that menu, look for "Sleep Mode" or "Sleep Time," although in some versions of MIUI it may simply be called "Rest," and that's where the switch lurks that instantly desaturates the image.

Once the function is enabled, the system will suggest setting a schedule or activating the mode manually. You can select the start and end times of the filter to turn the screen black-�Eating automatically at certain hours, which is especially useful for those who want to limit their phone use before catfishing, as the lack of blue spectrum and bright colors contributes to the production of melatonin.

• 🌙 Open the settings and go to the Digital Well-Being section".
• 🎨 Find the item "Rest mode" or "Sleep time".
• ⏱ Set your desired schedule or turn on the feature right now.
• 👁 Check that the "Shades of Grey" slider is activated.

Importantly, newer versions of HyperOS might have changed the logic of the module, so if you don't find the switch in the specified location, try searching by settings by typing in "shades" or "gray." The system will tell you the desired shortcut leading to the hidden option.

⚠️ Note: When you turn on the mode through Digital Well-being, some applications may not display color indicators correctly, which is important to consider when working with graphics.

Using Android is the most stable option that doesn’t conflict with other services, and it ensures that after you reboot your device, your settings will be maintained and the screen will become monochrome again according to the given algorithm.

Activation through special features and the developer menu

If the standard rest mode doesn't work for you or doesn't work properly, you can turn to deeper system settings. The special features section at Xiaomi contains many tools to improve visibility, including simulating color blindness, a method that is often ignored by users, although it gives a great result.

Go to Settings → Advanced Settings → Special Features. Here you are interested in the Vision tab. In the list of available options, find Color Correction or Simulation of Colorblindness. By selecting Monochrome mode, you force the entire interface to black and white, and unlike sleep mode, this setting is permanent until you turn it off.

For more advanced users, there is a path through the developer menu. To get there, you need to quickly click on the build number in the About Phone section 7 times. After the message "You became a developer" appears, go back and find a new item in the advanced settings. Inside the menu, look for the Simulate color space option and select "Monochromia".

Using a developer menu gives you tighter control over image rendering, and unlike software filters, this method changes the way the system processes color channels before sending a signal to the display matrix.

• 🔧 Activate the developer mode taps by build number.
• 👀 In special features, enable color correction.
• ⚙️ In the developer menu, find "Simulation of anomaly".
• 🎭 Select Monochromia mode for full black and white effect.

It is worth considering that activating a simulation in the developer menu can affect the performance of some heavy games or photo editing applications, in which case the system can forcibly reset the setting or warn of a possible conflict.

Third-party applications for display management

When built-in features aren’t enough or they’re not running smoothly on your Android version, Google Play apps come to the rescue. There are many utilities that layer over the main interface, filtering colors in real time. These programs often have more flexible settings than standard Xiaomi tools.

One of the most popular solutions is the Day & Night app or similar blue light filters, which have a "Grayscale" mode, and once installed, the app will ask permission to overlay over other windows, a necessary step that allows the program to change colors in all running games and utilities without root rights.

The advantage of third-party software is that it's fine-tuning, and you can adjust not only saturation, but also contrast, brightness, and even color temperature, creating a unique display profile. Some applications allow you to create profiles for different situations, like "Read" or "Work."

When using third-party filters, it is important to monitor energy consumption. Although current algorithms are optimized, constant processing of the video stream can lead to additional, albeit small, battery consumption of your Redmi or POCO.

Quick access via shortcuts

Constantly searching for the right option in the depth of the menu can be annoying, especially if you want to switch screen mode on the fly. Fortunately, the MIUI and HyperOS shell allow you to put the right switches into the notification curtain or assign them to physical buttons.

To add a switch to the control center, lower the curtain down and press the edit button (usually a pencil icon or three dots). In the list of available shortcuts, find "Rest Mode" or "Digital Well-being" and drag it to the active area. Now switching to black and white mode will take one touch.

Alternatively, use the Quick Ball function or assign an action to a long press of the power button. → Quick commands can be configured to start the desired mode or filter application by double tapping or swipe.

You also need to look at One-Hand Mode or gestures that can be reassigned, and although you can't directly turn on B/B by gesture, you can set up a filter application to run, which will give you a similar result with minimal effort.

Effects of monochrome mode on battery and OLED

Owners of Xiaomi smartphones with AMOLED And the answer is that in the matrix, you often wonder if black and white saves you a battery. OLED-Each pixel is individually illuminated, and the black color means that the pixel is completely off.

However, turning the image into shades of gray does not mean that all pixels go out. White and light gray colors still require backlighting. However, the lack of bright, rich colors (especially red and green, which consume more energy in some types of matrixes) can give a small increase in autonomy.

The bigger effect comes from changing user behavior, which is that when the screen gets boring and unattractive, you instinctively spend less time on bright but energy-intensive apps like YouTube or Instagram, and that indirect influence is often more important than direct energy savings.

• 💡 Black on AMOLED conserves energy as much as possible.
• 🎨 Gray tones consume less than bright saturated colors.
• 📉 Reducing the time of use is the main factor in saving.
• 🔋 Flight mode in combination with C/B gives the maximum result.

If your main goal is to maximize battery savings, then black and white mode should be combined with a dark theme of system design. In conjunction, these two parameters can significantly extend the life of a smartphone in the absence of an outlet.

Frequent problems and ways to solve them

Despite the simplicity of the procedure, users may encounter a number of technical difficulties, sometimes after updating the firmware settings are reset, or the function stops working in certain applications, Understanding the causes of these failures will help quickly return the comfort of use.

One common problem is that colors are not displayed correctly in the navigation bar or keyboard, which is because some system elements take precedence over user filters, in which case cleaning the cache of the Special Features service or reinstalling a third-party filter application helps.

Also worth mentioning is the potential conflict with energy saving modes: Aggressive MIUI optimization can kill color filtering processes, adding the application to the exclusion list or "Unlimited Background" will solve this problem.

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If the black and white mode is gone after the update, try resetting the special features settings in the Recovery and Reset menu without affecting personal data.

In rare cases, the problem may be hardware acceleration graphics. Disabling this option in the developer menu ("GPU Accelerate") sometimes helps stabilize color profiles, although it can slightly reduce the performance in the interface.

⚠️ Note: It is not recommended to use high contrast mode with monochrome filters, as this can lead to unreadable interface in sunny weather.

Return to color image

The black and white mode is deactivated in the same ways as the black and white mode. If you used Digital Well-being, just turn off the switchboard in a schedule or manual mode. For the method, through special features, just go back to the menu and select No or Default mode.

When using third-party applications, it is enough to remove them from the autoboot or completely remove the program. Xiaomi system does not require a reboot to apply changes, the color spectrum is restored instantly after turning off the filter.

If the screen is black and white even after all the manipulations, check if the color inversion mode is activated in special features, a separate feature that often confuses users, as it also changes the perception of the picture, making it unnatural.

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For full color returns, check out three places: Digital Well-Being, Special Features, and screen filters installed.

Comparison of activation methods

To sum up, it depends on your goals, and the best way to combat addiction is to use a regular rest mode, because it runs on a schedule, and to work constantly or read documents, it is more convenient to use special features settings or third-party applications with flexible settings.

Each of these features has its own advantages: Xiaomi’s built-in tools guarantee stability, while third-party software gives you freedom to create. Experiment with settings to find the perfect balance between eye comfort and the functionality of your smartphone.