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Comment by jordanthoms | Hacker News Reader

All this passionate advocacy, and they won't even mention that this is allowed on Android (with a few apps doing it distributed through the Play Store) - or build an Android app themselves? I get that people are iOS fans, but there seems like a bit of Stockholm syndrome here.

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The apps that change screen gamma on Android still require root, so it's not as easy as going to the Play Store on any device (at least the apps are on the Play Store if you do have root though).

There are non-root apps that use an overlay instead, which can sorta help but it's not an optimal solution.

Regardless of how it is accomplished, I use Twilight for Android, and I love it, and it is the number one reason I can't go back to using iOS. It has made a HUGE impact on reducing my insomnia, and I will not look at any screen without a screen reddener within a couple hours of bedtime.

wurd, I really like iPhones and iPads. But I find the OS hard to deal with. Twilight is a good example. Theres also an Audiobook app I love that could not be used on iOS. I don't want to be forced to use Safari or a rebranded Safari. The list grows :)

I think the proper solution is to add gamma correction APIs to Surface Flinger and get that upstreamed so eventually all recent Android phones will support it without root. At least, that was my idea when I looked into it. IIRC OpenGL ES 2 was missing some OpenGL proper feature that would have made the gamma correction easy.

I use Lux on Android without root and it works perfectly.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux&h...

It works alright, but as the parent mentioned it only provides an overlay. It can't change the underlying colour temperature. (Basically it can add orange, but it can't remove blue.) I've used Lux with and without root, and the experience with is definitely superior.

Interesting, I never noticed that. Unfortunately my phone (a Galaxy S5 Active) can't be rooted, last time I checked.

No, they don't. Twilight is working on my phone and it's completely stock.

No it isn't, I use Twilight https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid... No root required. Its an awesome app :)

That uses an overlay instead of actually changing your screen gamma (essentially it's adding more red instead of directly reducing the amount of blue). I definitely agree that it's more useful than nothing at all like on the iOS App Store.

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