PSA: Siri Can Turn on Night Shift on Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has a hidden feature for activating Night Shift on the device, a Reddit user discovered recently. If you ask Siri on the Apple Watch to turn on ‌Night Shift‌, ‌Siri‌ will do so, and the display will take on the dimmer, yellow hue that lowers blue light exposure.

apple watch night shift
It is not clear how long ‌Siri‌ has been able to activate ‌Night Shift‌ on the Apple Watch, but it seems to be recent. Apple has no documentation on ‌Night Shift‌ on Apple Watch, and it was not previously a watchOS 10 option. It's possible ‌Night Shift‌ is tied to watchOS 11, but it is not limited to devices running watchOS 11. We were able to use the feature on an Apple Watch Series 9 with watchOS 10 installed.

Activating ‌Night Shift‌ can only be done through ‌Siri‌, and there is no toggle in the Apple Watch Settings app or elsewhere on the device. ‌Siri‌ mentions scheduling ‌Night Shift‌ in the Settings app, but that's not an option at the current time in watchOS 10 or watchOS 11.

‌Night Shift‌ does not appear to be available on all Apple Watch models, with Reddit users unable to activate it on a Series 5 and lower.

The option to suddenly turn on ‌Night Shift‌ without an accompanying setting suggests that it is a feature that has been accidentally introduced, and the toggle could be introduced in a future version of watchOS 11 or an upcoming watchOS 10 update.

Top Rated Comments

contacos Avatar
18 months ago
Happy to report that this works in the EU as well
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twocents Avatar
18 months ago
As a night owl, this is such a welcome change on my Ultra 2! It also shifts the flashlight to a warmer white tone
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sleeptodream Avatar
18 months ago

Are people staring at a watch so much that they need this?
Probably not but it always bugged me having my Apple watch be a different color temperature than my phone screen.

It’s like having soft white and daylight bulbs in the same room ***cringe***
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mtnmac26 Avatar
18 months ago
worked on my series 7 w/watchOS 10, neat!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Böhme417 Avatar
18 months ago

"Gazing at a screen that emits “blue light” before bed doesn’t seem to have a significant effect on sleep, scientists have said after reviewing the evidence."

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/staring-at-a-phone-before-bed-doesnt-interfere-with-your-sleep-8d6fw85gb
Whether or not it has an impact on sleep, it is definitely more comfortable on my eyes to have a warmer display later at night.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Crowbot Avatar
18 months ago
Maybe they coded the function and just forgot to put it into Settings. ;)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)