How I Mimic An E-Ink Screen On My Phone

Thursday, March 19, 2026

In my last blog post, I talked about how I am aiming to use my phone less. So far my methods outlined in that post have worked. I mentioned in that post that I had turned my phone screen into a pseudo e-ink screen with the help of a few tweaks. In this post I'll delve deeper into the tweaks I've used, and how they help.

The Hardware Tweaks

The level of customization on the hardware level is trivial. As I pointed out in that last blog post, I just used a matte screen protector. It's as simple as that. The screen protector I used was the Mothca Matte Glass Screen Protector.

It's a handy addition to my device, and fits so well my wife legit thought my phone screen was just matte when she first saw it on (despite having the same device as me). The biggest draw of it is the glare reduction, which has come in handy when I use my phone outside.

The Software Tweaks

I mentioned in my other article that I turn on black and white mode (monochromatic mode on some phones) to give it an e-ink look. But that's only half the battle with the e-ink look. Apple has a unique take on design with their Liquid Glass interface, one that incorporates a lot of transparency. Typically, e-ink displays do not incorporate a lot of transparency.

This is one of two iOS specific tweaks I utilized to get the most accurate e-ink look. Turning on the reduce transparency option in the accessibility settings gets rid of the Liquid Glass look, and brings it more in line with a UI that you'd find on an e-reader. While I am a fan of Liquid Glass, don't get me wrong, it just feels out of place on an e-ink display.

The next iOS specific tweak is one I use to make my device feel more like an e-reader, rather than just look like one. This setting is the reduce motion option in the accessibility menu. What this will do is do away with all the fancy animations throughout the OS and replace them with fade transitions, much like on a proper e-ink display. As far as I am aware, this is a feature on Android as well, labeled Remove animations found in the accessibility menu in the settings app.

The Habit Tweaks

Lastly is how I use the device. Since making the switch to the pseudo e-ink screen I've been a lot more intentional about my device usage. I find myself picking up my phone less to doom scroll and more to intentionally perform a certain action. This shift in philosophy of device usage is instrumental to taking back the perceived control of my device.

In no short words, that is how I turned my phone's display into a pseudo e-ink display. What are your thoughts? Will you be trying some of the steps I outlined here? Feel free to let me know through my Email or Mastodon.

Thanks, Jacob