Android's well-received Night Light feature, which was introduced alongside the Android N Developer Preview in 2016, inexplicably disappeared for certain devices in Android 8.1 Oreo. That motivated OEMs such as Sony to roll out replacements: the Xperia XA1 series featured the company's own take on Android's Night Light. Unfortunately, it'll be removed in an upcoming Oreo update.

Sony introduced the nightlight feature in a beta software build last year. (Sony's Concept program is similar to Google's Developer Previews in that it's a testing ground for features that don't always make their way to stable branches.)

In one of the preview builds, Sony Xperia XA1, Xperia XA1 Ultra, and Xperia XA1 Plus owners uncovered a Night Light-like feature called "Good night actions" in the Xperia Actions settings menu. While it wasn't as fully featured as Android's native Night Light mode, it lowered the amount of blue light -- which is thought to affect circadian rhythm and make it more difficult to fall asleep at night -- emitted from the screen.

Someone recently reached out to the official Sony Xperia Twitter account and asked why the XA1 series had this feature while other Sony devices did not. A customers support representative said that it'll be removed in an upcoming Oreo update for the XA1 series, and recommended third-party alternatives.

It's unclear if the feature is being removed due to a technical reason, or if Sony's aiming for feature parity across its devices. Whatever the case may be, it's unfortunate to see it go.

Source: Xperia Blog