Support

Most questions about Brightened come down to one thing: where the daylight number comes from. Start here.

Why does Brightened need an Apple Watch?

Time in Daylight is measured by the ambient light sensor on Apple Watch, Series 6 and later. It is the only device that records it. iPhone has no equivalent sensor for this measurement, so there is no phone-only version of the number and Brightened will not invent one.

If you wear an Apple Watch through the day, the data is already being recorded whether or not you have ever looked at it.

I have an Apple Watch but nothing appears

Work through these in order:

1. Open the Health app, go to Sharing, then Apps, then Brightened, and confirm Time in Daylight is turned on. Read access can be declined during setup, and iOS does not tell the app when that happens.
2. In the Health app, search for Time in Daylight and check that data exists there. If Health shows nothing, the watch has not recorded any yet.
3. Wear your watch outdoors for a stretch, then open Brightened again. Data appears once the watch has recorded and synced it.
4. Pull down on the Today screen to refresh.

The widget is not updating

The widget reads a snapshot written by the app, so open Brightened once and the widget will catch up shortly after. If it still looks stale, remove the widget and add it again.

How is the seven-day average calculated?

It is the mean of your daily totals across the last seven days. Days with no recorded daylight count as zero. Days before your watch started recording are left out entirely, and while you have fewer than seven days of history the app says so on the Today screen.

What should my daily goal be?

That is genuinely up to you. Brightened does not recommend a number, because how much daylight a person needs is not something an app should decide. The goal exists to shade the gradient against something meaningful to you. Pick something that fits your life, and change it whenever it stops fitting.

Is my data sent anywhere?

No. Brightened has no servers and no accounts. Everything stays on your device. The full detail is on the privacy page.

Is there an Apple Watch app?

Not yet. Your watch does the recording today, but it has no Brightened interface of its own. A watch app is planned for a future update.