How to Turn on “Extra Dim” Screen Mode on Android at Night

Using your smartphone in bed is a nearly universal habit. However, staring at a bright screen in a pitch-black room can cause significant eye strain, disrupt your body’s melatonin production, and keep your partner awake.

Most users know how to drag the brightness slider all the way down, and many utilize the “Night Light” or “Eye Comfort Shield” feature to filter out blue light. But on many modern displays, even the absolute lowest brightness setting on the slider is still painfully bright in total darkness.

To solve this, Google introduced an accessibility feature in Android 12 called “Extra Dim.” This feature artificially reduces the intensity of the screen’s backlight beyond the hardware’s minimum limits, making the display significantly darker and much more comfortable for late-night reading.

This guide explains how to enable the Extra Dim feature on your Android smartphone.

How to Turn on Extra Dim via Quick Settings

The fastest way to toggle this feature on and off is by adding it to your Quick Settings panel (the menu that appears when you swipe down from the top of your screen).

1. Swipe down twice from the very top of your Android screen to fully expand the Quick Settings panel.
2. Look through the tiles for one labeled Extra Dim. (You may need to swipe left to see the second page of tiles).
3. If you see it, simply tap the tile to instantly dim your screen.
4. If you do not see the tile, tap the Pencil icon (or “Edit” button) usually located at the bottom left or top right of the panel.
5. Scroll down to the section of hidden, inactive tiles and locate the Extra Dim tile.
6. Tap and hold the tile, then drag it up into your active Quick Settings area.
7. Tap the back arrow to save your layout. You can now toggle the feature on and off with a single tap every night.

How to Adjust the Extra Dim Intensity

The default “Extra Dim” setting might actually be too dark, making text difficult to read. Fortunately, you can fine-tune exactly how much darker the screen gets when the feature is activated.

1. Open the Settings app on your Android phone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Accessibility.
3. Under the “Display” section, tap on the words Extra Dim (do not just tap the toggle switch; tap the actual text to open the submenu).
4. You will see an Intensity slider. Drag the slider to the right to make the screen even darker, or drag it to the left to make it slightly brighter while the feature is active.

How to Keep Extra Dim on After a Restart

By default, Android turns the Extra Dim feature off if you reboot your phone. If you prefer the screen to always stay darker than the hardware minimum, you can change this behavior.

1. Navigate back to the Extra Dim submenu (Settings > Accessibility > Extra Dim).
2. Look for the toggle labeled Keep on after device restarts.
3. Turn this toggle On.

Now, combine the Extra Dim feature with the standard blue-light filter (Night Light), and your late-night reading sessions will be far more comfortable and significantly less disruptive to your sleep cycle.