
Going gray for smartphone addiction - atareh
https://gogray.today/app
======
diimdeep
I think it is bullshit, because black and white slot machine still is a slot
machine.

[1]: [https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-
machin...](https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-machine-
gambling-addiction-psychology-mobile-games)

[2]: [https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-
mak...](https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-make-apps-
addictive)

[3]:
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphon...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-
addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia)

[4]: [https://venturebeat.com/2016/04/02/app-makers-its-time-to-
st...](https://venturebeat.com/2016/04/02/app-makers-its-time-to-stop-
exploiting-user-addiction-and-get-ethical/)

[5]: [https://medium.com/@anamitra/dopamine-hits-and-product-
desig...](https://medium.com/@anamitra/dopamine-hits-and-product-
design-f1376b32eaa1)

Turned on grayscale in macOS(System Prefs - Accessibility - Display) before
googling this articles, can confirm that still receiving dopamine hits.

~~~
macawfish
Ingrained associations don't die easily. I remember when I first quit
facebook. I still had the habit of quickly pressing "F, _enter_ " for months
after I quit. After a couple years though, I hardly ever go through that old
routine.

Check out Nicky Case's game about neuroplasticity:
[http://ncase.me/neurons/](http://ncase.me/neurons/)

Just now I enabled grayscale via the Android developer menu. I noticed an
immediate reduction in intensity. It didn't feel like "bullshit" to me! If you
want this to help you, you're probably gonna have to give it a little bit more
of an open mind. The attitude of "this is bullshit" could very easily sabotage
any positive benefits of this exercise. Big things grow from small seeds, but
only if you water them, give them light and make sure they don't get crowded
out by more aggressive plants.

~~~
diimdeep
Everyone loves placebo, but after browsing for half hour in grayscale and
turning back color there is some kind of wow effect.

~~~
atareh
It's not the full solution but it's definitely part of it. Colour on my phone
overwhelms me now (i've been gray since June)

------
dkyc
Took me a while to get what this app does, maybe it would be a better idea to
link to their homepage: [https://gogray.today/](https://gogray.today/)

> _What was bright and shiny was now dull and boring. It 's like turning your
> favourite dessert into broccoli._

This fantastic analogy it was sold me on signing up, good copywriting:

~~~
pb060
I understand that the analogy might work for many but I would choose boiled
broccoli with olive oil and pepper over any dessert.

~~~
khedoros1
The form of the analogy is the important point, not the specifics.

"It's like turning <thing you look forward to eating> into <something you're
less enthusiastic about>."

~~~
atareh
hahaha thank you for that. I know not everyone hates broccoli as much as me :)

------
sigmar
I started doing this yesterday. I kind of like it and I think I'm getting
distracted less with grayscale. I'll unlock my phone and won't forget why I
unlocked.

You don't need an app for android to do this system-wide (tho I could see why
whitelisting would be nice). Just go to developer options-> Simulate color
space-> Monochromacy

~~~
atareh
yeah! we include the instructions on the website to go gray natively :). The
app will have the features listed on the page.

~~~
yumaikas
For windows users, there's stuff like
[http://arcanesanctum.net/negativescreen/](http://arcanesanctum.net/negativescreen/),
that might be interesting to investigate and/or integrate into this.

~~~
xaedes
I missed the grayscale option at first sight and discarded that solution.
Thought it could only invert colors.

To make it clear: NegativeScreen has a grayscale option with default hotkey
F11.

------
kostajh
After reading this article [1], I created a small "disconnect box" that sits
by my front door (it's a repurposed iphone box). When I'm home, and especially
when the kids are awake, the phone stays in there. I can hear if someone
calls, but otherwise notifications are off. Working quite well so far!

[1] [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-
smartphone-i...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-
is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/)

------
ceefan
In (iOS && iPhone<9), you can toggle this filter with the triple click trick.
In Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, select Color
Filters, then triple click the home button.

~~~
svenfaw
The same can be done on Android (Lollipop and above).

~~~
CarVac
How do you do it in Android?

~~~
svenfaw
Settings > Accessibility > Direct Access > Grayscale (Tested on Lollipop - may
vary on later versions)

------
chasing
Curious how they're planning on technically building the "whitelist apps" and
"set grayscale times" features.

Are these possible given iOS's sandboxing?

~~~
huebnerob
No, definitely not. Apple recently restricted apps' usage of URL schemes to
check whether other apps are even installed on the phone.

It's possible they could be doing something really esoteric with an enterprise
app (doesn't need to go through app review) or an MDM profile (can touch some
deeper system stuff sometimes), but given that they're currently in the teaser
email capture phase, I doubt this will ever crystallize into a real iOS
implementation.

I think they're just trying to get some message out, which is fair enough.
FWIW, you can always manually set your iPhone to greyscale in system
accessibility settings, which they do point out themselves.

~~~
atareh
The main point of this is definitely to start a "movement"

It's not about me or the app, it's just something that had a profound impact
on my life and i'm trying to share that with everyone that might be struggling
with this - that's why we include instructions to turn your phone gray
natively. The app adds features that have kept some people from going gray
even though they really want to (need phone for work and it's too much of a
hassle to go menu hopping / navigation apps arent the best in grayscale etc).

------
radicaledward
I did the native version of this after someone mentioned it in one of the
general articles on phone addiction that have been making their rounds on HN
since the start of the year. So far I don't feel like it has had much of an
effect. I've only noticed two direct behavioral changes for me so far:

1) It is forcing me to wait to watch YouTube videos until I get to a computer
because I want to see them in color. That seems like it should be a big gain,
but I still find myself scrolling through my YouTube recommendations anyway.
Habits die hard I guess.

2) It is also delaying my reading of the couple of web comics I follow since,
again, I want to see them in full color.

So I guess my phone usage overall has dropped considerably since YouTube takes
up most of my time. I'm already off Reddit starting a couple of months ago and
I've been off of Facebook (except Messenger) and Twitter for over a year. So
maybe I'm not really the target of all of this, but I definitely spend more
time than I would like on YouTube.

I also made a change to my settings so that my phone screen no longer wakes up
when a notification arrives. So it is less distracting when sitting on a
table.

In addition I saw a couple of other pieces of advice on here to curb phone
use: One of them mentioned putting only fast utility apps on your home screen
and removing notifications that don't come directly from people (basically
every notification except for personal e-mail, human texts, and Slack messages
I guess?). I haven't tried either of those things yet but I'm definitely
considering it. They both require a bit more thought and planning than simple
settings changes.

In regards to the site linked, I have only one additional piece of input:
Please stop with the scroll jacking. This is a well known web design anti-
pattern. I don't understand why this fad has persisted as long as it has. It
literally feels like the site is broken when interacting with it using a click
wheel.

~~~
atareh
Website creator here, thanks for the comment! I do recognize the hate for
scroll jacking, however it was the only way for me to set up the website with
that effect, do you know of another way? I'd love to make a change (i'll be
honest, i didnt know scrolljacking was something that was so despised)

Looking forward to your comment!

~~~
radicaledward
Hey thanks for your response!

Please note that this response is only in the context of your home page
desktop design on Firefox. I'd need to spend some additional time doing
analysis on mobile and other browsers.

In my opinion, the main thing you want to do is not change responses to the
user's systems native controls. This is an essential part the principal of
least surprise -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishmen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment)

In your case, my main problem with the design is two pieces, my scrollbar is
missing until after the slide show and the animated pieces of the slide show
don't move using the same "physics" principals as a bare html page in the same
browser. The lack of a scroll bar (I have an optional setting on so it is
always visible if present) means that I don't expect there to be additional
content on the page. Then when I do try scrolling, ot feels like nothing is
happening at all and then I hit some invisible threshold and the page scrolls
_for_ me. This feels a little bit like lag, which in any other case would mean
that my computer is breaking. That's a bad feeling.

In most cases I would suggest a medium scale redesign - save the font choices,
the colors, and some of the layouts but go back to the drawing board on the
user interactions. However I know that designs like this continue to be
popular and so I'm going to have to keep working on them. I've found that
there are some decent compromises out there. So here's what I would suggest:

1) For the transition between the final slide (pip 3) and the actual page
content drop the fixed animation entirely. That content should simply be at
the bottom of the page the entire time.

2) For the transitions between the 3 images of Venice (or wherever?), I think
you're going to need to do a bit of playing around. Ideally the largest object
on the screen should move in direct relation (and with a 1 to 1 ratio) to the
scrollbar without any delay. The absolutist in me wants to say that you should
just place the 3 images in a stack and be done with it, but I realize that's
not eye catching enough for the audience you're targeting. In your case one
option would be to consider the "largest object" to be the horizontal scan
line where one image stops and the other image starts. But the problem there
is that you're still going to have to do significant scroll jacking to get
that transition point to move...

However, I think you can get an effect like this using transparency or opacity
settings and some complex positioning. You might need JavaScript for slide
transitions after the first, but I would have to actually build the thing to
figure it out. I'll think about it overnight and let you know if I come up
with anything! (No promises though!)

Another option might be to use background-clip: content-box; for the
transitions and then some JS magic in-between slide transitions to change
which image is in the foreground and which is in the background.

The text at the bottom would continue to switch in a slide show style I think.
You would have to try it and see.

If you want to preserve the delay between slides, you'll need to add a
somewhat large visual element to the design that continues to move as the user
scrolls even while the image stays in place, but in this case, I'm not sure if
that will be necessary.

None of those solutions will completely remove scroll event listeners, but
they will bring the experience back significantly toward being in line with
normal system interactions.

This feeling of lack of control vs perfect control is something I look for in
the video games I play. I've come to believe that it is the single most
important part of game design for me. Games like QWOP and Getting Over It play
with this idea intentionally, while historical successes like Mario 64 and
Soul Calibur have made waves in the gaming world specifically because their
controls are so refined and fluid.

Sorry I wrote so much! I appreciate the work you're doing with this site and I
wish you much success!

~~~
atareh
Wow thank you so much for the detailed response!

I've taken this comment back to my team and we're discussing our next moves
now - I think the easiest and most immediate thing we can do is removing the
scroll effect on the third screen to the homepage - hopefully that reduces
some frustration for you (and i'm sure many others have felt).

Thank you for the kind words! Definitely trying to make an impact in the space
:)

------
Waterluvian
I don't quite get why this should work but I'm already enjoying it. Not for
addiction, I'm not addicted. But it's calmer. I feel calmer.

~~~
atareh
took the words right from my mouth haha (or should i say a reader) :P
[https://blog.gogray.today/content/posts/calm.html](https://blog.gogray.today/content/posts/calm.html)

------
berberous
Looks interesting, but it seems to be a landing page to gauge interest with no
app available yet.

Edit: To be clear, I set my phone to grayscale a little while ago, so I'm
aware that's built in to iOS. I think the additional features that this app
idea is proposing on top of that feature are great, but it seems like the app
does not yet exist (and perhaps not possible with iOS's limitations).

~~~
yumaikas
They provide workable instructions for creating this effect on Andriod and
iOS, as it doesn't require an app as such.

If an app does come out of this, it'll probably be more about setting
greyscale for different other apps.

~~~
atareh
you're right!

i give instructions for going gray on phones on the website, the app we're
developing is desgined to make grayscale easier (whitelisting certain apps
that is useful in colour, like google maps, etc).

------
atareh
thought this was timely to post due to the recent article in NYTimes about
going grayscale for phone addiction

[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-
phon...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-phone.html)

~~~
outsidetheparty
Thanks for the explanatory article; just reading the linked site left me
scratching my head wondering what the heck putting my phone in grayscale mode
would have to do with "phone addiction".

I'm still not convinced it makes much sense, but at least it's not _totally_
random....

------
phillc73
I don't know about the app, but following the instructions on that website I
have just set my phone to monochrome mode.

I'm not sure it will assist me to use my phone less, because initially I
really like it!

The main use for my phone is to read stuff; news, email and instant messaging.
I don't use social networking on my phone (apart from Hacker News if that
qualifies). I do use a 2FA app, but colour hardly matters there. I do also
take pictures with the phone and perhaps that's the one potential drawback I
can think of.

I find the monochrome look easier on the eyes and initially very pleasant to
use.

~~~
atareh
the app may work for you still, if you find grayscale is taking away your
ability to take the photos you want - the whitelisting feature would turn it
off when you're in your camera (without menu hopping)

~~~
phillc73
I'd be happy to give the Android app a chance, as long as it's available to
install from somewhere other than Google Play Store, which I don't use.

~~~
atareh
i'm sure that can be arranged :)

------
Toast_25
TLDR: gray-scale reduces your phone usage, they're going to make an app for
that, but they have instructions for doing it natively as well.

------
dkarl
Funny that their cure for Instagram addiction is to basically apply an
Instagram filter to your whole phone. Where's the Gingham option?

~~~
samat
Monochrome existed for some time before Instagram.

------
jf
Setting my phone to gray scale didn't "cure" me from my smartphone addiction.
But it did help. In particular, games stopped being fun to play.

I just finished up one week of only carrying an LTE Apple Watch as a
smartphone replacement and it has been incredibly effective.

~~~
khedoros1
> In particular, games stopped being fun to play.

I'm on a GameBoy kick recently, so that statement stands out, to me.

~~~
jf
Ah, fair point. The main difference is that the games I was playing were not
explicitly designed for grey scale. If I had been playing on a GameBoy
emulator, I wouldn't have even noticed!

------
r0br0dz
For Android

Enable Developer Options:

Settings > About Phone > Build Number (Tap 7-8x)

Enable Grayscale:

Developer Options > Simulate Color Space > Monochromacy

------
xaedes
Hm, what about going gray on desktop? Any solutions for windows?

~~~
xaedes
If you have NVidia graphics, open NVidia control panel and set "Digital
Vibrance" to 0% from here.

[0]
[https://superuser.com/a/480524/125700](https://superuser.com/a/480524/125700)

------
i6Respawns
How does one get the app? The whitelist feature would be game-changing.

~~~
atareh
sign up for the beta! it'll be released soon :)

------
jccalhoun
because no one ever watched black and white movies or tv shows...

~~~
nugi
Judging how it is impossible to watch a b&w movie with friends today, pretty
much. If all my mp3's were shellac records, i would listen less, but value my
time listening more.

~~~
atareh
great analogy! It's not about all or nothing but frequency :)

------
jswizzy
I have this thing called self-control and discipline. It doesn't cost anything
except respect for one's self. Throwing technology and apps at character flaws
isn't a long-term solution for anything and only feeds consumerism and
materialism.

