New Night Shift mode in iOS 9.3 could have its own Control Center toggle
In all likelihood, you’ll be able to toggle the new Night Shift mode in iOS 9.3 right from Control Center.
It came from Canada
At least that’s what’s hinted at by the preview page for iOS 9.3 on Apple’s official Canadian website.
As spotted by Reddit user nickjosephson, the webpage includes a promotional image showing a lampshade icon as part of Control Center. The image suggests that when the icon is tapped, Night Shift can be enabled with either of two available options: Turn On For Now or Turn On Until Tomorrow.
The image shows the Control Center toggle for Night Shift on an iPad. But it’s entirely possible that the toggle would also make its way to the Control Center on iPhone, notwithstanding the narrower interface space on the smaller iOS device.
In case you’re wondering, the matching image on Apple’s official U.S. website instead shows Apple News, which is yet to be launched in Canada. And as expected, the same image showing the Night Shift toggle in Control Center is also used in Apple’s iOS 9.3 preview pages in other countries where Apple News is not yet available, like New Zealand.
The first beta of iOS 9.3, which was released last week, doesn’t include the Control Center toggle for Night Shift. A future beta is expected to, though.
What is Night Shift anyway?
Of course, a dedicated Control Center button for Night Shift would be a welcome addition, as it does away with the need to go to the Settings app to toggle the mode.
Night Shift is a display mode that effectively filters out the blue light emission from glowing screens that has been found to keep people awake even at night.
“Many studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep,” Apple explains. “Night Shift uses your iOS device’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location. Then it automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum, making it easier on your eyes. In the morning, it returns the display to its regular settings.”
Night Shift is similar to the popular Mac app F.lux, which was made unofficially available on iOS in November — via Xcode sideloading, not the App Store, as it uses private APIs, access to which by developers is not allowed by Apple — only to be promptly taken down at Apple’s behest. Shortly after the introduction of Night Shift, the team behind F.lux came out with an acknowledgment of Apple’s significant step toward sleep improvement along with a request to officially allow F.lux on iOS.
