The urge to play games comes at different times of the day, but the Xbox Series X is trying to make it easier for those who want to play at more irregular times of the day. This is because a test of the new "Night Mode" is now available to the public.

The idea is that Night Mode will make playing after sunset more comfortable. This means that the screen and hardware lighting will be dimmed and an optional blue light filter will be added to reduce eye fatigue.

However, while public testing is underway, not everyone can participate. Only Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring can participate. However, it appears that those who have access to this new feature will enjoy a number of customizations that will allow them to tailor the night mode to their own needs.

According to a video by Tom Warren of The Verge, Night Mode can be found in the preferences tab of the Xbox's settings menu. There, users have almost complete control over what happens. Night mode itself can be toggled manually or set to activate on a schedule. It can be set at a fixed time, like the blue light filters on some cell phones, or based on the sunset/sunrise cycle.

Night mode also allows sliding controls for how dark to make the display and how much blue light to filter out. It can also block HDR and reduce the amount of light emitted from both the console's power button and the Xbox controller's home button.

Theoretically, this could also turn off both lights on the Xbox hardware at all times, without changing how the TV image actually looks.

The only thing the night mode cannot do is turn down the volume on the TV, which is a very difficult task.

Of course, night mode is not yet a stable feature, and various changes may occur as it goes through various stages of testing. We hope that most of the current functionality will be maintained and rolled out as a feature for all.

Mobile phones and PCs already have similar features, and it's about time that similar features were available on console gaming consoles; if they are being tested on Xbox, we hope that they will be tested on PS5 and possibly Nintendo Switch as well!