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Hands-On With the New Night Shift Mode in macOS Sierra 10.12.4

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macOS Sierra 10.12.4, seeded to developers this morning, introduces a major new feature: Night Shift for the Mac.

First introduced for iOS devices in iOS 9.3, Night Shift is designed to gradually shift the display of a device from a blue tint to a more yellow tint during the evening, cutting down on exposure to blue light. A quick overview of how Night Shift works on the Mac can be seen in the video below.


Night Shift can be toggled on and off using the new Night Shift switch located in the Today section of the Notification Center.

nightshiftnotificationcenter-800x500.jpg

Preferences for Night Shift are available in the Displays section of System Preferences. In this section, users can schedule Night Shift to come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise or set a custom Night Shift schedule. There's also a manual toggle and an option to change the color temperature of the display.

nightshiftoptions-800x599.jpg

Night Shift-style functionality has previously been available on Macs through the popular and well-known f.lux software, but it will be a built-in feature in macOS Sierra in 10.12.4, eliminating the need for a third-party app. F.lux continues to offer a bit more customization, however, with the option to turn it off on a per-app basis.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 is only available to developers at the current time, but it should be made available to public beta testers in the near future. It will likely be beta tested for at least a month or two prior to release, so expect to see the update in March or April.

Article Link: Hands-On With the New Night Shift Mode in macOS Sierra 10.12.4
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/24/night-shift-mode-in-macos-sierra-10-12-4/
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Is there a difference between the spectral alterations implemented by Night Shift and f.lux, and in the time curve over which the alterations are applied? F.lux allows you to set the night time temp between 1200 and 3400K, with a default of 2300K. I'd like to know the corresponding range for Night Shift, what its default temp is, and whether what you get with Night Shift at, say, 2300K differs from what you get with f.lux at the same temp.
 
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MacRumors said:
F.lux continues to offer a bit more customization, however, with the option to turn it off on a per-app basis.
Click to expand...

That and the ability to have three "modes" (if you want): daylight, sunset, and bedtime. Night Shift is just on or off. The bedtime/super-late mode is nice for f.lux not just to knock some sense into me if I stay up too late but also if I do, by chance, need to do something on my Mac quick at night without needing to wear sunglasses.

And the good thing about the Mac is that Apple can't just remove f.lux from the App Store (which I'm pretty sure they've never even been in) and stop us all from using it just because they created a similar feature. :)
 
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Shaun said:
I don't see the point of this.
Click to expand...
The article kind of glosses over this. In short, blue light has been shown to affect our sleeping patterns. The more blue light you're exposed to, the later and worse your quality of sleep. It's become a bigger issue these days with so many people using phones and tablets before bed. Night Shift automatically reduces the blue light emitted from your device at a certain time of the night.
 
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Night Mode works great for an iPad or iPhone, I use it and like how it works. However I can't see myself using it for my Macbook 15", I don't want anything messing with the colors, tint or brightness when I'm using my Macbook. I would much rather have something like a dark theme mode, where you can opt for black backgrounds or darker themes on forums etc instead of all this white, white stark white...
 
Harmonious Zen said:
The article kind of glosses over this. In short, blue light has been shown to affect our sleeping patterns. The more blue light you're exposed to, the later and worse your quality of sleep. It's become a bigger issue these days with so many people using phones and tablets before bed. Night Shift automatically reduces the blue light emitted from your device at a certain time of the night.
Click to expand...
Yep. Use your iPhone/iPad/computer (f.lux for now) in nightshift/night mode. Get used to it for an hour or so.

Then turn it off. The blasting, searing blue light is horrific. You will wonder how you went all this time without night shift.
 
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Thing is - f.lux lets you really crank up the orange - to the point it will cause artifacting in the white parts of TV shows (like the light panels in Star Trek: TNG will show up as a freaky pink). This is why Night Shift on the iPad and iPhone won't go too too low - Apple still wants everything to look good.

So I imagine Night Shift on the Mac will be the same - it'll help, but maybe not to the extreme that f.lux goes. I imagine that'll be fine for most people, but I might stick with f.lux for a while longer.
 
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Thats crazy... I just installed the Beta; and there is no Night Shift for me. Not in Displays, and no toggle in Today section of Notifications. Also tried telling Siri to turn it on, and Siri responds she is unable to turn it on for my Mac....
 
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