First look: Night Shift mode comes to Mac in latest macOS Sierra beta

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2017
As rumored, Apple included a new Night Shift mode -- borrowed from iOS -- in the recently released macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta, promising a low blue light viewing experience for nighttime computer work. Check out what the feature looks like and how to activate it in AppleInsider's latest video installment.









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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    levilevi Posts: 344member
    Using F.lux now, but like the idea of control center toggle.
    longpath
  • Reply 2 of 21
    riverkoriverko Posts: 222member
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
  • Reply 3 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Cannot wait for NightShift. I am confident future testing shows mountains of evidence that features like Night Shift do work. It's significantly easier to look at an adjusted display at night. We're hard wired to associate different coloured bright lights that we stare into with different times of day. A cold blue display just isn't very sensible as the later evening comes, where the wind down should start. The body clock is a very real thing as I found out by watching the BBC TV documentary "Horizon: the secret life of your body clock" several years ago. I think it was the 70's when that scientist experimented by living away from natural light in a deep cave for months and using special equipment for monitoring he discovered when the results came in that after a period of adjustment he was indeed eating at dinner time and sleeping at night time.
    edited January 2017 urahara
  • Reply 4 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    riverko said:
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
    The limitations on iOS are genuinely needed as older phones and iPads are much slower. Doubt such limitations will be needed on any Macs that run Sierra.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 5 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    levi said:
    Using F.lux now, but like the idea of control center toggle.
    My main issues with f.lux are its settings are unnecessarily fiddly and confusing to many users. And it's very buggy and has been for several years. I uninstalled f.lux a few months ago—finally had enough. As soon as NS comes out I expect to switch it to sunset mode and never touch it again.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 6 of 21
    riverkoriverko Posts: 222member
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
    ireland said:
    riverko said:
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
    The limitations on iOS are genuinely needed as older phones and iPads are much slower. Doubt such limitations will be needed on any Macs that run Sierra.
    I'm not sure it is about the speed... To change the colour setting seems as one time operation to me. OK, two times - on/off. But isn't the effort for the device the same as to switch from colour to b/w mode?
  • Reply 7 of 21
    larsimanlarsiman Posts: 3unconfirmed, member
    This might be helpful when doing office stuff, but as soon as it gets to viewing images or video i don’t get the point of toggeling the colours because anything you watch for example online is already compromised and moving the colours even further from what is meant to be original simply doesn’t make sense to me. But as it will be optional to activate/deactivate i don’t care. To each his own.
  • Reply 8 of 21
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    riverko said:
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
    Yes. As noted by you it apparently only works on MB/MBP (i.e., laptops) but not on iMac.

    I would have liked to have it on my iMac cause at nite my 27" screen may as well be a 40W equivalent LED bulb.
  • Reply 9 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,728member
    It is only seen on Retina displays screens from what I can gather.  I might try the F.lux mention above on my non retina Macs, I'd never heard of it before.

    My bad it is working on my Macs!
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 10 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,728member
    I take it back it is working on my nMP now!  Not sure why it wasn't at first.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 11 of 21
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,931member
    This just in - woman sues Apple for insomnia & sleep disturbances. Claims Apple had technology to prevent this for years and failed to implement it...
    lkruppSoliretrogusto
  • Reply 12 of 21
    blkhawk105blkhawk105 Posts: 3member
    damn_its_hot said:
    riverko said:
    Any limitations for specific hardware as it is on iOS or simply any MacBook/Pro can have it?
    Yes. As noted by you it apparently only works on MB/MBP (i.e., laptops) but not on iMac.

    I would have liked to have it on my iMac cause at nite my 27" screen may as well be a 40W equivalent LED bulb.
    It seems to be working beautifully on my late 2012 Mac mini. 
  • Reply 13 of 21
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    MplsP said:
    This just in - woman sues Apple for insomnia & sleep disturbances. Claims Apple had technology to prevent this for years and failed to implement it...

    Absolutely will happen.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    pixeliapixelia Posts: 2member
    While this looks quite useful, what I REALLY WANT is DARK MODE. I find that much more useful for lowering overall light levels and still getting mixed graphics and text work done in the evenings. 
  • Reply 15 of 21
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,881member
    larsiman said:
    This might be helpful when doing office stuff, but as soon as it gets to viewing images or video i don’t get the point of toggeling the colours because anything you watch for example online is already compromised and moving the colours even further from what is meant to be original simply doesn’t make sense to me. But as it will be optional to activate/deactivate i don’t care. To each his own.
    Unless i'm doing work in photoshop, it doesn't really matter to me if the hue or cast isn't accurate at night. Surfing or casual use just doesn't matter. 
  • Reply 16 of 21
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,112member
    larsiman said:
    This might be helpful when doing office stuff, but as soon as it gets to viewing images or video i don’t get the point of toggeling the colours because anything you watch for example online is already compromised and moving the colours even further from what is meant to be original simply doesn’t make sense to me. But as it will be optional to activate/deactivate i don’t care. To each his own.
    I use this mode on my phone, and I adjusted it so the white of the screen at night is as close as possible to what a plain white piece of paper looks like with my incandescent lighting. So to me, it actually seems more accurate in relative terms with the feature on, because a non-adjusted screen looks blue under incandescent lights. 
  • Reply 17 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,728member
    StrangeDays said:
    larsiman said:
    This might be helpful when doing office stuff, but as soon as it gets to viewing images or video i don’t get the point of toggeling the colours because anything you watch for example online is already compromised and moving the colours even further from what is meant to be original simply doesn’t make sense to me. But as it will be optional to activate/deactivate i don’t care. To each his own.
    Unless i'm doing work in photoshop, it doesn't really matter to me if the hue or cast isn't accurate at night. Surfing or casual use just doesn't matter. 
    Quite right.  It's been a huge benefit for late night iPad watching of Netflix and sleeping better for both my wife and I.  I tend not to be working on accurate color work after dinner!  ;)
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 18 of 21
    disneylandmandisneylandman Posts: 297member
    pixelia said:
    While this looks quite useful, what I REALLY WANT is DARK MODE. I find that much more useful for lowering overall light levels and still getting mixed graphics and text work done in the evenings. 
    Dark mode has been in the General pane of System Preferences for a long time.  You can even hide the menu bar if you want.  Of course you have to get third party developers to re-write their apps to be dark.  But you can change the menu bar and dock to dark if you want.
  • Reply 19 of 21
    disneylandmandisneylandman Posts: 297member
    Night Shift will really ruin the look of all that late night porn viewing by the millennials.  
  • Reply 20 of 21
    the perfessorthe perfessor Posts: 3member
    Night Shift is overdue on MacOS. I have really liked it on my iPhone and iPad and since I am running the MacOS 10.12.4 beta on my Late 2012 Mac mini it is more than welcome here. For those who were asking, if it works on my Mac mini is should work an just about any Mac capable of MacOS 10.12.
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