In this digital era, we’re spending more time in front of our mobile, tablet, and computer screens. The blue light emitted by these electronic devices can cause eye strain, headaches, insomnia, etc.
According to recent research, constant exposure to blue light can cause vision problems as well. Users who spend a huge amount of time on their smartphones, especially at night, may suffer from these issues.
Fortunately, there are a number of blue light filter apps available to deal with this problem. By using these apps, you can reduce the amount of blue light emitted by your smartphone.
Table of Contents
7 Best Blue Light Filter Apps
While there are numerous apps available to choose from, I have compiled a list of the 7 best filter apps to block blue light in order to protect your eyes from the harmful effect of blue light.
Many android devices often have a night light feature, but you can’t fully control it. Most of these applications are available for multiple platforms. So, you can select the best one according to your device.
We’ll individually explain the feature of these best blue light filter apps.
1. Iris
Price: Free (for a limited time), $15 one-time payment
Compatibility: Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome
Iris is the first best blue light filter and eye protection app on this list. This app comes with advanced screen optimization options to prevent eye fatigue caused by smartphone screens. You can set this app to automatic mode to automatically apply your desired settings or you can manually enable it as well.
You can choose from a wide range of color temperature settings including Biohacker, Programming, Health, Sleep, and more. Moreover, it provides you the ability to create your own presets easily.
Using this incredible app, you can safely use your smartphone screen for a long time without affecting your eyes.
Highlighted Features:
- This app includes 9 different temperature settings
- Comes with 20+ features to stay healthy
- Ability to create your own preset
- It has 3 different modes i.e. automatic, manual, and pause
2. F.lux
Price: Free for personal use
Compatibility: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux
F.lux app adapts the color of your smartphone display at night to the time of day so you can use your mobile without affecting your eyes. It offers 5 different temperature modes to suit your needs.
This app will keep you relaxed from blue light and help you sleep better at night. F.lux is available on the play store with its preview version only, at the time of writing. The final version is not released yet.
Moreover, you have to provide root access as it only works on rooted smartphones for now. Hopefully, its final version will be released soon. However, if you have a rooted phone, you can take advantage of this app to enable the night shift feature.
Highlighted Features:
- Provides 5 different modes
- Helps your sleep better by protecting your eyes
- Automatically adjusts color according to environment lighting
- Available on all major platforms
3. Twilight
Price: Free
Compatibility: Only Android
Twilight is another blue light-filtering app to adjust your smartphone screen according to the environment around you. This app works by replacing the harmful blue light emitted by your mobile screen with a red filter that is easy on the eyes.
Once you set this app to automatic mode, it’ll change the filter intensity level automatically according to your local sunset and sunrise times.
This feature helps protect your eyes from the harsh blue light that can disturb your sleep and cause eye strain if you use your mobile frequently. All in all, Twilight is one of the best night-mode apps.
Highlighted Features:
- Protects your eyes by adjusting the filter level automatically
- Offers Bed Reading mode for easy studying
- Works fine on AMOLED screens too
- Available on Wear OS devices as well
Download: For Android
4. Blue Light Filter – Night Mode
Price: Free & in-app purchases are available
Compatibility: Only Android
The working of this app is clear from its name. This Blue Light Filter app reduces the blue light by adjusting the color of the mobile screen to more natural color. While Android has a built-in night mode, it doesn’t allow you to control the brightness level and color.
This app provides you with complete control to reduce the blue light by changing the filter level in a few swipes. Its screen dimmer does a great job than the Android’s built-in screen’s brightness controller.
Not only it’ll help you sleep easily but also save your android device power. Using this app, you will be able to have better sleep at night.
Highlighted Features:
- Offers 6 different natural light modes to protect your eyes
- Provides you control to adjust filter intensity manually
- You can pause the filter for a specific amount of time
- Comes with a built-in screen dimmer
Download: For Android
5. Night Owl -Dimmer & Night Mode
Price: Free & in-app purchases are available
Compatibility: Only Android
Night Owl also reduces the intensity of harmful blue light to keep your eyes relaxed. This app provides you the ability to manually adjust the filter level according to your liking.
The default Android brightness controller has its limitations, but with the help of this app, you can dim the entire screen. Moreover, it comes with more interesting features like shake-to-stop, auto start/stop, advanced filter settings with sliders, and much more.
You can directly enable the night shift mode from the notification bar and widgets as well to put an overlay filter for eye protection. So, if you’re a frequent smartphone user, you must try out this app to help you wind down at night.
Highlighted Features:
- Adjust the filter level that suits your environment
- Control the app from the notification area or with widgets
- Activates automatically at sunset
- Control the mobile brightness even to the lowest point
Download: For Android
6. Bluelight Filter for Eye Care
Price: Free & in-app purchases are available
Compatibility: Only Android
Bluelight Filter app adjusts the color of your screen automatically according to the external environment to protect your eyes from blue light at night. You only have to set the filter intensities once for various situations such as daytime, nighttime, cloudy weather, and many others.
Afterward, the app will automatically apply those filters by assessing the surrounding environment.
In this way, it helps your eyes to relax and makes it easier for you to fall asleep at night. You can give this app a try and share your opinion.
Highlighted Features:
- Various color filters are available to choose from
- Applying relevant filters automatically based on the surrounding environment
- Schedule turn on/off between specific hours
- Take screenshots without a screen filter
Download: For Android
7. Darker (Screen Filter)
Price: Free & in-app purchases are available
Compatibility: Only Android
Darker screen filter app has the ability to reduce your smartphone brightness to the lowest level. You can set your own custom filter color as well to make your eyes more comfortable at night.
This app will automatically start and stop at your specified time. Furthermore, you can set this app to start at boot time.
You can stop and pause the blue light feature directly from the notification bar. However, most of its features are paid, so you can pay if you like this app.
Highlighted Features:
- Lower your phone brightness upto the lowest point
- Set a custom filter color that suits your preferences
- Automatically start and stop the screen filter
- Control the app from the notification bar
Download: For Android
How do Blue Light Filters Work?
These applications work by changing the color temperature of your mobile phone according to the environment or your preference. They reduce the intensity level of blue light emitted by your phone screen.
By adjusting the color temperature, these apps make it warmer and more comfortable for your eyes. Moreover, some of the mentioned applications add a yellow tint to block blue light.
I’m sure you must have observed eye strain when you use your android device late at night. This blue light can disturb your sleep over prolonged use of a mobile in dark.
For this reason, I suggest you install any of the mentioned apps to protect your eyes so you can have a peaceful sleep at night.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Blue Light Filter Apps Really Work?
Yes, these filters really work by protecting your eyes from harmful blue light. These apps reduce the amount of blue light emitted by your phone display by adjusting the color temperature of the screen based on your environment.
Is There a Blue Light Filter App for iPhone?
Iris and F.lux are the best blue light filters for iPhone users to reduce this harmful light. You can install any of these apps, make changes according to your preferences, and set the app to automatic mode. These applications will really help you to sleep peacefully.
Which App is Best For Blue Light Filter?
For android users, I’d suggest the Twilight blue filter app as it provides all the necessary features you need to reduce blue light. For iPhone users, F.lux blue light filter app does a great job. You can choose any of these apps according to your device.
Is Blue Light Filter Good For Your Eyes?
Yes, blue light filters block most of its harmful effects to protect your eyes. These filter apps don’t completely block the blue light but they significantly reduce the amount that helps to reduce eye strain and improve sleep. So, these filters reduce blue light exposure to keep you safe.
Conclusion
Prolonged use of android devices at night can have negative effects on your eyes since they emit blue light. Although we can’t avoid this, however, we can use blue light filter apps to reduce the amount of blue light emitted by the display and protect our eyes from strain and potential damage.
All these filter apps to reduce blue light provide some unique features. You can try them individually and select the one which suits your preferences. There are many other apps available as well like Night Shift, Night Mode, etc. that perform the same job.
These apps not only protect your eyes but also save your mobile’s battery life. You can skip installing these apps if you already use blue light blocking glasses.
These blue light glasses better protect your eyes than the apps. However, if you don’t have you can make the process of filtering blue light easy with the applications mentioned.
Now, you can easily work at night, like doing work on Canva, without worrying about the effects of blue light.