Xiaomi’s current smartphones, which are powered by MIUI shells or the new HyperOS, have incredibly bright and rich displays that can cause eye fatigue over long-term use. Many users are wondering how to make a black and white screen on the shaomi to reduce the load on vision or simply save battery power, as colored pixels consume more power. The inclusion of monochrome mode is not just a visual fad, but a functionality built deep into the Android system.
There are several proven ways to get the interface into gray mode, ranging from standard accessibility settings to hidden engineering menus. The choice of the specific method depends on your device model, operating system version, and personal preferences about how radical the color reproduction change should be. Below we will take a detailed look at all the options available so you can choose the most suitable for your use case.
Use of the Electronic Ink mode (E-Ink)
In recent versions of MIUI 13, MIUI 14 and HyperOS, developers have introduced a special mode that simulates the operation of e-book screens. This tool is ideal for those who want to know how to make a black and white screen on shaomi without installing third-party software.
To activate, you need to go to the settings menu and find the section responsible for special features or additional functions of the system. Depending on the region of the firmware (Global, Chinese, Russian), the path may vary slightly, but the logic remains the same. Once turned on, the phone will behave like a reader, which is especially useful when reading news at night.
☑️ Activation of the E-Ink mode
It's worth noting that this mode can work in two ways: permanent or on a schedule, and you can set up automatic black and white on certain hours, like late at night, to keep your body's circadian rhythms from being disrupted by blue light and bright colors, and this is an effective way to combat digital addiction, as gray icons become less attractive to your brain.
⚠️ Note: In E-Ink mode, some interface animations may be slower or disabled altogether to simulate an update to the e-paper screen.
Set up through the Digital Well-Being menu
An alternative and often more flexible method is to use built-in screen time control tools.The Android system, which underpins HyperOS and MIUI, contains a powerful Digital Wellbeing unit that allows you to manage not only the time of use, but also the visual design of the desktop as part of the “Sleep” mode.
To take advantage of this method, you need to look for a balance item in the settings, which is called "Sleep Mode" or "Sleep Time," which, when activated, turns the entire smartphone interface into a monochrome look, which is different from the standard night mode, which only adds a yellow filter, but retains all the colors.
The main advantage of this method is that you can fine-tune your schedule, so you can set the black and white screen to automatically turn on, for example, from 22:00 to 07:00. The rest of the time the phone will work normally with full color reproduction, which allows you not to give up bright photos during the day, but you can guarantee to protect your eyes at night.
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If the standard schedule doesn’t suit you, use the “Sleep Mode” label in the notification curtain to instantly switch to black and white at any time.
Forced switching through “Developer Mode”
For advanced users who want full control of the system, there is a hidden developer menu, and this is where the answer to the question of how to make the screen black and white on the xiaomi system level, including those applications that ignore standard availability settings, is the most “hard” and guaranteed to remove all colors.
The first step to activate this mode is to unlock the developer menu, which requires several times in a row to click on the build number in the About section. Once the corresponding notification appears in the main settings menu, a new option will appear in the “Additional” or “Extended settings”, where you need to search for the desired settings.
Inside the developer menu, you're interested in the section that deals with debugging USB or simulating extra screens. However, the most powerful parameter is often hidden in the subsection responsible for hardware acceleration or rendering. Find the option "Imitate anomalies" or "Simulate color scheme" and choose the option Monochrome. After that, the entire interface, including games and videos, will become black and slurred.
Settings -> About Phone -> 7 times tap "Version MIUI" -> Additional settings -> For developers -> Search for "color" or "mono"How to get out of developer mode?
Using this method requires caution, as changing other parameters in the developer menu can affect the stability of the work of individual applications. It is recommended to change only those settings that you are sure of the purpose. In particular, changing the density of the DPI or the refresh rate of the screen without understanding the consequences can lead to incorrect display of interface elements.
Third-party applications for flower management
If the built-in tools fail to achieve the desired result, or the functionality of your version of MIUI is limited, applications from the Google Play Store come to the rescue. There are many utilities that create a color filter on top of the main interface, allowing you to make the screen black and white on shaomi in one click.
One of the most popular solutions is the Day Night Eye Filter app, or the Screen Filter app, which works by layering a translucent layer over all windows, which does not require a superuser license (Root) and is compatible with most Redmi and POCO models.
- 🌗 Day Night Eye Filter – allows you not only to make the screen gray, but also adjust the brightness below the minimum system limit, which is useful for reading in complete darkness.
- 🎨 Color Filter is a specialized application that offers ready-made presets, including the “Grayscale” mode, which completely removes the saturation of colors.
- 👁️ Blue Light Filter – many blue light filters have a full discoloration function, combining eye protection from radiation and monochrome mode.
When using third-party software, you should consider resource consumption. Although these applications are light, they still work in the background and can slightly increase battery consumption. In addition, some of them may require permission to display over other windows, which is standard practice for screen filters.
⚠️ Note: Download screen filtering apps only from trusted sources, such as Google Play. APK-Files may contain malicious code that collects data about your actions on the screen.
Comparison of display switching methods
So to make it easier for you to decide on the method, we've prepared a comparison table that will help you figure out which method is best for your goals: saving power, protecting your eyesight, or just experimenting with an interface.
| Method | Difficulty | Impact on the battery | Flexibility of settings |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-Ink mode (MIUI) | Low. | Average. | Tall. |
| Digital well-being | Low. | Low. | Average (in time) |
| Developer mode | Tall. | High (savings) | Low (always on) |
| Third-party annexes | Medium | Average. | Very high. |
As you can see from the table, the best way to use and read books is to use the built-in E-Ink mode, or Digital Well-being, which is the most stable and optimized by the manufacturer, and the developer mode should be used temporarily if you want to check what the application looks like in monochrome, or if other methods do not work on your particular model.
The Effect of Monochrome Regime on Autonomy
One of the common questions users have is the real cost savings: In theory, turning off the colored subpixels (red and blue) and only running the green channel should reduce the power consumption of the display, especially when it comes to the power consumption of the display. OLED-screens where each pixel is illuminated independently.
In practice, however, the difference may not be as obvious as expected. The main energy consumer in a smartphone is not the color of the pixel, but the brightness of the backlight (in LCD) or the overall brightness of the glow (in OLED). If you leave the brightness at 100%, but make the screen black and white, the savings will be minimal. The real effect is achieved by combining low brightness and monochrome mode.
However, the psychological effect is often more important than the technical one: a gray screen is less stimulating to the brain’s dopamine system, the user spends less time on social networks and games, which ultimately leads to fewer cycles of screen activation and, as a result, saves battery life during the day.
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Maximum energy savings are achieved by a combination of black and white mode, low brightness and dark interface design theme.