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Smartphone Red Screen Setup

Smartphone Red Screen Setup

Night Vision is very important at any night astronomy activity. It’s considered common etiquette to respect everyone’s night vision. Below are simple instructions on configuring your smartphone to use a red screen. This is a great option to use during a star party or when out doing astronomy stuff.

Others around you will appreciate the effort and courtesy you used to preserve everyone’s night vision.

  • These steps provide a basic setup to use your smartphone screen as a red light at night.
  • There are other ways to accomplish the same goal using other apps or techniques. Please use what ever method works best for you.
  • There may be some variations in the steps or screen shots depending on the software version and phone model. But the general principle should work on most phones.

IMPORTANT ! – this procedure does NOT change the color of the FLASHLIGHT. Only the phone screen will be RED. Please DO NOT use your white light flashlight while attending the star party.

iPhone RED Light Screen Instructions:

Setup Red Light Screen:

    1. Goto
      • Settings => Accessibility => Display & Text Size => Color Filters
    2. Toggle on “Color Filters”
    3. Select “Color Tint”
    4. Slide the “Intensity” and “Hue” sliders ALL the way to the right
    5. NOTE: the sliders MUST be all the way to the right or the screen color will be a pinkish orange. This will NOT work for night vision. Only Red will work.

Setup Red Light toggle:

There are several options to switch the red light screen ON/OFF. Choose which ones you want to use. More than one option can be setup.

    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility => Accessibility Shortcut
    2. Select “Color Filters”
    3. Try it out: triple click the iPhone side or top button to switch the Red Light screen  ON/OFF
    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility => Touch => Back Tap
    2. Choose double tap or triple tap
    3. Choose “Accessibility Shortcut”
    4. Try it out: double or triple tap the back of your iPhone (depending what you selected)
    5. NOTE: best results require you hold your iPhone still while tapping the back

 

    1. iOS 18 or newer:
      • Goto Control Center => (press background) => Add a Control => Color Filters
    2. iOS older versions:
      • Goto Settings => Control Center
      • Scroll down, Add “Accessibility Shortcuts”
    3. Try it out: open control center, tap on the color filter icon (iOS 18+) or accessibility icon (older iOS)

 

    • iOS 16 and newer
    1. Open the “Shortcut” app. (use “search” if you can’t find it)
    2. Add a new shortcut: click “+”
    3. Tap “(+) Add Action”: Scroll down, select “Set Color Filters”
    4. Tap “Turn” (top screen) to change to “Toggle”
    5. Open the edit menu (top screen): tap the shortcut name with down arrow
    6. Rename the shortcut (ie. Red Screen, Red Light or Night Vision, etc)
    7. Optional: change the icon and/or color from the edit menu
    8. Add to Home Screen: Do one of the following:
      • Tap the “share” button at the bottom. Select “Add to Home Screen.”
      • Tap the “info (i)” button in the bottom toolbar. Select “Add to Home Screen”
      • Tap the shortcut’s name. Select “Add to Home Screen.”
    9. Optional: use a photo as the icon. Note: this option only appears once during “Add to Home Screen”. Tap the icon under “HOME SCREEN NAME AND ICON”. Select “Choose Photo”. 
    10. Try it out: tap the shortcut icon to toggle ON/OFF
    • iOS 18 or newer only
    1. Start from Lock Screen => (long-press) => Customize => Lock Screen 
    2. Remove one of the exiting controls with the minus sign (-)
    3. Click the + to add a new controller
    4. Search for “Color Filters” and select
    5. Try it out: tap the color filter icon on the lock screen

 

    • iPhone 15 or newer only
    1. Goto Settings => Action Button => Accessibility => Color Filters
    2. Try it out: long press the action button to toggle ON/OFF

 

Samsung Galaxy RED Light Screen Instructions:

Setup the Red Light Screen:

    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility => Vision Enhancements/Visibility  Enhancements 
    2. Tap “Color Filter”/”Color Lens”
    3. Toggle ON
    4. Select RED. Slide the intensity (Opacity) setting to the right if available 

Setup a red Light Shortcut”

    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility 
    2. Tap “Accessibility Shortcuts”
    3. Tap “Color Lens”

Activate Red Light Shortcut:

    • Triple click the power button or home button (depending on your model) to toggle the Red screen ON/OFF

Google Pixel RED Light Screen Instructions:

Setup the Red Light Screen:

    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility => Vision Enhancements/Visibility  Enhancements 
    2. Tap “Color Filter”/”Color Lens”
    3. Toggle ON
    4. Select RED. Slide the intensity (Opacity) setting to the right if available 

Setup a red Light Shortcut”

    1. Goto Settings => Accessibility 
    2. Tap “Accessibility Shortcuts”
    3. Tap “Color Lens”

Activate Red Light Shortcut:

    • Triple click the power button or home button (depending on your model) to toggle the Red screen ON/OFF

Enjoy!