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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

I have to assume that this burst of activity came because Apple and Microsoft are both now just do what f.lux does in the OS (Apple fans will be familiar with the term "getting Sherlocked"). Can't see how f.lux is going to survive long-term, to be honest.

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I still use f.lux because it has way more options and control than the built in Apple product. I wish I had it on my phone too, but I just suffer with Night Shift instead.

I've been very happy with Twilight on my Android device.

My Android (Pixel XL) has it built in as "Night Light" in the Display settings which I prefer.

I've used both Twilight and f.lux (rooted only) on Android in the past and Twilight's defaults are rough and needs too much fuss & attention to get the settings right. f.lux was buggy even tho I was rooted. "Night Light" is OK.

I've set iOS Night Shift to be active all day (start at 8:00 AM, end at 7:59 AM, something like that), can't look at the phone without it now.

Sorry, what exactly is causing you to "suffer"? It's an option to warm up the color temperature on your screen.

The lack of programmability, like I have with f.lux.

I can only make it come on and off at a certain time, and the color temp is just a slider with no numbers.

With f.lux, I can have day, evening, and night, and it adjusts automatically to my location. When I travel, I have to adjust the time on my phone.

All little things, but it shows how f.lux is polished and Night Shift is not.

Um, your time updates as you cross time zones on a cellular phone. Why would you have to change Nightshift? 20:00 is 20:00 no matter where you are.

Because time zones span ~15 degrees of longitude, and the sunset can be up to one hour difference between each side of the time zone. Also, I move north and south during my travels, which also changes sunset, and is not reflected in the time zone.

Those are some very specific requirements then, you are indeed suffering, I hope you find peace.

My main gripe is that it only has a single color temp setting. I use three with f.lux and it makes a huge difference. 5800K during the day, 3400K in the evening (between sunset and 11pm) and 1900K after 11pm, until an hour after sunrise.

My phone is jarring in the evening because it's way cooler than my display.

Night Shift's warmest setting is nowhere near as warm as f.lux's. I, too, miss it dearly on my iOS devices.

How much warmer do you want? The screen is basically burnt orange at this point.

I want candlelight. I replaced a bunch of bulbs in my house so that before I go to bed I have no light sources warmer than a candle, other than my phone.

If you're jailbroken you can use f.lux on iOS. I've been using it for years.

true. but if you look at apple maps vs google maps/waze. google is succeeding despite not being integrated with ios. if f.lux is the better product and apple screws up royally by ignoring, f.lux still has a chance.

Except in the case of iOS/Android, you don't really have a choice. Apple and Google forbade screen temperature apps from being allowed to make the necessary changes, unless it's their own respective system app.

f.lux may live on as a MacOS and possibly Windows desktop app, but it's pretty much impossible as a mobile app now.

Wrong, on Android twilight works very well. Only limitations are not being able to draw over on screen buttons and some important system dialogues.

Twilight just draws a transparent red color over the entire screen. That's different from what f.lux does.

Night Shift only gives a small red shift compared to f.lux.

Night Shift is decent on iOS (well it's the only option) because screen is relatively small, but I'll keep f.lux on Mac for now - candle setting makes a big difference - I've worn blue-blocking glasses before and it really helped but better to not have to wear them.

Perhaps even too much (at least for me).

Night Shift on iOS isn't terrible, I feel the benefit from it watching some streaming as I lull to sleep. But when I had f.lux on my iPad, I had shorter times to get to sleep. The screen would become so devoid of blue...everything was extremely red. Like weird red. The weird thing though, my brain adjusted to it after about 2-3 minutes. Science officer uniforms (Star Trek) still looked blue to me, even though they were more akin to a reddish-block in actual color.

IMO Apple chose the aesthetic of less red shift and traded away the sleep-assisting benefits of a more pronounced shift.

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