Twilight: Blue light filter

4.6
433K reviews
10M+
Downloads
Editors' Choice
Content rating
PEGI 3
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About this app

Are you having trouble falling asleep? Are your kids hyperactive when playing with the tablet before bed time?
Are you using your smart phone or tablet in the late evening? Are you sensitive to light during migraine?
Twilight may be a solution for you!

Recent research suggests that exposure to blue light before sleep may distort your natural (circadian) rhythm and cause inability to fall asleep.

The cause is the photoreceptor in your eyes, called Melanopsin. This receptor is sensitive to a narrow band of blue light in the 460-480nm range which may suppress Melatonin production - a hormone responsible for your healthy sleep-wake cycles.

In experimental scientific studies it has been shown an average person reading on a tablet or smart phone for a couple of hours before bed time may find their sleep delayed by about an hour. See references below..

The Twilight app makes your device screen adapt to the time of the day. It filters the flux of blue light emitted by your phone or tablet after sunset and protects your eyes with a soft and pleasant red filter. The filter intensity is smoothly adjusted to the sun cycle based on your local sunset and sunrise times.

You can also use Twilight on your Wear OS device.

Documentation
http://twilight.urbandroid.org/doc/

Get more from Twilight
1) Bed reading: Twilight is more pleasant on the eyes for night reading. Especially as it is able to lower the screen backlight far below the ability of the backligt controls on your screen

2) AMOLED screens: We have tested Twilight on an AMOLED screen for 5 years without any sign of depletion or over-burning. If properly configured Twilight causes less light emission (by enabling dimming) with more equal light distribution (dark areas of the screen such as the status bar get tinted). This may in fact increase your AMOLED screen life time.

Basics on circadian rhythm and the role of melatonin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanopsin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm_disorder

Permissions
- location - to find out your current sunset/surise times
- running apps - to stop Twilight in selected apps
- write settings - to set back-light
- network - access smartlight (Philips HUE) to shield you household light from blue

Accessibility Service

In order to filter also your notifications and lock screen the app may ask for enabling Twilight Accessibility Service. The app uses this service only to better filter your screen and does not collect any personal information. Please read more about this at https://twilight.urbandroid.org/is-twilights-accessibility-service-a-thread-to-my-privacy/

Wear OS

Twilight also syncs your Wear OS screen with your phone's filter settings. You can control filtering from a "Wear OS Tile".

Automation (Tasker or other)
https://sites.google.com/site/twilight4android/automation

Related scientific research

Amplitude Reduction and Phase Shifts of Melatonin, Cortisol and Other Circadian Rhythms after a Gradual Advance of Sleep and Light Exposure in Humans Derk-Jan Dijk, & Co 2012

Exposure to Room Light before Bedtime Suppresses Melatonin Onset and Shortens Melatonin Duration in Humans Joshua J. Gooley, Kyle Chamberlain, Kurt A. Smith & Co, 2011

Effect of Light on Human Circadian Physiology Jeanne F. Duffy, Charles A. Czeisler 2009

Efficacy of a single sequence of intermittent bright light pulses for delaying circadian phase in humans Claude Gronfier, Kenneth P. Wright, & Co 2009

Intrinsic period and light intensity determine the phase relationship between melatonin and sleep in humans Kenneth P. Wright, Claude Gronfier & Co 2009

The Impact of Sleep Timing and Bright Light Exposure on Attentional Impairment during Night Work Nayantara Santhi & Co 2008

Short-Wavelength Light Sensitivity of Circadian, Pupillary, and Visual Awareness in Humans Lacking an Outer Retina Farhan H. Zaidi & Co, 2007
Updated on
Mar 13, 2025

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
No data collected
Learn more about how developers declare collection

Ratings and reviews

4.6
404K reviews
Brzęczyszczykiewicz “Brzęczyszczykiewicz” Brzęczyszczykiewicz
March 12, 2025
Takes ages to apply any changes, makes the app impossible to moderate accurately. It does what it says but imagining an accurate replica of your phone with a red screen would be faster than this thing loading. I warn you, do not set the screen dim too high. Your phone will become basically unusable.
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Petr Nálevka (Urbandroid)
March 13, 2025
Hello, the app has a limit for dim at 85%. If you can go further, you have enabled the Backlight control (experimental) feature. If you wish to have the limit back, disable this feature back. Does it mean it takes too long to launch the filter, or the other apps are slowed down? Could you please give us more details? support@urbandroid.org
Miranda Berry
December 14, 2024
I adore this app. As someone with visual snow syndrome, I've tried all kinds of screen filters and dimmers, and this one is my favorite by far. One of the things that aggravated me most about other ones is having to go into the app and manually turn everything off to take a screenshot without the color being heavily altered, but this one has a built in pause and screenshot function accessible from the notifications bar!
68 people found this review helpful
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L Sw
January 22, 2025
I think this app is great and simple! And my eyes do genuinely feel better when I have this on. I love that you can get it to automatically turn on at sunset and off at sunrise, that's so cool. I only have one problem! All my screenshots whilst Twilight is running are super dark and red! It's a little inconvenient. Would appreciate any help on if this can be avoided
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Petr Nálevka (Urbandroid)
January 22, 2025
Hello, if Accessibility service of Twilight is enabled you can double-tap on the notification or quick settings tile, this will open up a quick settings dialog for Twilight and there is an option "Take screenshot", if you go this path the app will take care to pause Twilight, before taking the screenshot. support@urbandroid.org. Thank you.

What’s new

- Targeting Android 15
- Edge to edge support
- Fix for scrolling to last option and large DPI settings
- New libraries