The night-light feature in general should have more in-depth functionality. I agree with the additions outlined in this post. Here’s a few things I want to talk about that I think are also welcome additions/changes to the way Night-Light works.
Also some clarification. When I say “Disabled” or “Enabled” I’m talking about the Night Light feature as a whole being disabled, as in it wont let you change settings or do anything with it. When I say “On” or “Off” I’m talking about exclusively the color filter being turned on or off independent of the Night Light feature.
A dedicated Hot-key, Widget, System tray icon, or some other way of toggling it on and off. Right now with its current functionality, it is most easily interactable through the “Brightness and Color” settings. These are the current options we have right now.
- Always off
- Sunset and sunrise at current location
- Sunset and sunrise at manual location
- Custom times
- Always on night light
Alternatively, you can have the feature enabled and set to “Always on night light” in which you are forced, at the start of every session middle-click the system tray icon, or click on the system tray icon and “Suspend” it until you inevitably have to repeat this after every time you log onto your computer after start.
At first glance you would expect these options to be satisfactory for a normal user. But as a normal user, this is missing one of, and if not most important options. That would be the option to have it be turned off by default (i.e. after first login.) but easily turned back on.
It feels as if the option “Always Off” should already provide this use but it doesn’t, instead of it just turning the night-light filter off. It completely disables the feature.
My proposal is this. Change the “Suspend” switch to an “On/Off” toggle. Add a new option that is more clear about completely disabling the Night-Light feature. Add configurable hotkeys. Hotkeys for upping or lowering the color temperature. Hotkeys for turning off/on the feature. Hotkeys for disabling or enabling the feature. Just more options would do wonders. (A dedicated widget or other form of this is definitely also welcome too!)
Here are the less important but still welcome changes I would like to throw into the ring.
Upend the current naming scheme of Night Light and change it to something more encapsulating of the features uses. Something like Warm Tone or similar. (This one is slightly more controversial but I feel its necessary if they intend to make this feature more inclusive of all the different ways people use a feature like this.)
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I hope I was able to explain the issues I’ve had with the Night Light feature well enough. Obviously this is more of a wish-list than anything and I would be fine with getting any sized portion of the suggestions I outlined in this post.
I use the Night-Light feature very frequently because I have issues with eyestrain and I’ve come to figure out it helps a lot. My sleep schedule often fluctuates a pretty hefty amount so I can’t rely on the Night-Light feature being based on time of day. So I always just turn it on when I feel is necessary. But with the way that the feature is currently, it’s definitely not ideal. Sorry for writing an essay on such a minuscule little feature like this!
(Also side tangent. I understand and am aware of being able to middle-click the system tray icon, that is a good change however it does not fix the issue of not having a normal on/off switch instead of a “Suspend” or full-on disabling the entire feature. I also have attempted to find alternatives but so far I have not been able to find any that fit my needs and that is why I’ve chosen to make this post.)
