Phone distraction while driving is a serious safety concern. A 2025 study published in Transportation Research Part F asked a straightforward question: can switching your phone to greyscale reduce how much you look at it while driving or walking?
What the researchers tested
Rahmillah and colleagues designed an experiment to measure how greyscale affected two distinct behaviours: visual glancing (how often and how long drivers looked at their phone screen) and physical interaction (how often they physically picked up or touched the device).
Participants used their phones in both normal colour mode and greyscale mode during driving and walking scenarios. The researchers tracked eye movements and physical interactions to see if greyscale made a measurable difference.
What they found
Greyscale reduced the frequency of visual glances at the phone screen. When the display was desaturated, participants were less drawn to look at it. The colourful notifications, app icons, and content that normally pull your eyes toward the screen became less visually compelling in grey.
However, greyscale did not significantly stop the physical habit of picking up the phone. The muscle memory of reaching for the device remained largely unchanged. This makes sense: the urge to grab your phone is driven by habit and tactile triggers, not just by what is on the screen.
What this tells us about greyscale
This study highlights an important distinction. Greyscale is effective at reducing visual distraction. It makes the screen less attention-grabbing, which means you spend less time staring at it when you should be focused on something else. But it is not a tool for stopping the physical reflex of reaching for your phone.
That is actually consistent with findings from other greyscale studies. The intervention works at the level of visual reward, not at the level of motor habits. It reduces the pull of what is on the screen, not the impulse to pick it up in the first place.
Why this still matters
Even though greyscale does not eliminate the pick-up habit, reducing visual engagement is valuable on its own. A driver who picks up the phone but spends less time looking at the screen is still safer than one who gets pulled into a colourful notification feed. Every second of reduced glance time is a second with eyes back on the road.
And in everyday non-driving contexts, the reduced visual pull has a compounding effect. If the screen is less interesting to look at, the pick-up habit itself starts to fade over time because the reward at the end of the action decreases.
Combining greyscale with other strategies
The study suggests that greyscale works best as part of a broader approach. For driving safety specifically, combining greyscale with Do Not Disturb mode and phone mounting (so the phone is not in your hand) addresses both the visual and the physical dimensions of distraction.
For general screen time reduction, StayGray helps by keeping greyscale on by default while allowing smart exceptions for situations where colour is needed. The scheduling feature can also automatically enable greyscale during commute times or driving hours, so you do not have to think about toggling it yourself.
Reference: Rahmillah, F. I., et al. (2025). Can greyscale phone screens reduce mobile use while driving and walking? Transportation Research Part F, 114, 498-512. doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2025.05.029