How to turn on your phone’s flashlight

Where can I find the flashlight on my phone?

Need some light? Sure thing, because your camera’s flash isn’t just for brightening up your photos. You can also turn on the flash manually outside the camera app, turning it into a flashlight. Pretty useful, isn't it?

You’ll find the flashlight on the back of your phone, near the camera(s). But where exactly you can find it in your system (Android or iOS) and how to turn it on, that’s another story.

How do you turn on your flashlight?

How do you actually turn on the flashlight on your phone? Unfortunately, there isn’t just one answer. The biggest difference, of course, is whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone (for example, a Samsung). Still, the difference isn’t that big in the end. There are several ways to turn on the flashlight on your phone. No worries, we’ll explain it clearly below. First, where to find the flashlight on your Samsung or Android phone, and then how to turn the flashlight on (and off) on your iPhone.

Flashlight on Samsung and Android

Whether you’re looking for the flashlight on your Samsung, Oppo, or Fairphone doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that there are several ways to turn on your flashlight. We think the following ones are the easiest:

• Open your notifications panel or quick menu: You don’t need to download a separate app to use the flashlight on your phone. By swiping from the top right of the screen, or straight down, you can quickly find the flashlight in the notifications panel. With one swipe and one tap, your flashlight is ready to go. You can turn it off the same way. Pretty easy, right?
• Use gestures and movements: There are also different quick actions to turn on your flashlight for different Android phones:
  • Quick flashlight by shaking:
    1. Open your settings and go to ‘System’ and ‘Gestures’
    2. Choose ‘Quick flashlight’.
    3. You can also search directly for “Flashlight” and select the second option ‘Quick flashlight’. You don’t need to shake very fast, but it is the fastest way to turn on the flashlight on your Android.
  • Double tap: Do you have a Google Pixel or Xiaomi phone? Then you can set it so that two taps on the back turn on the flashlight.
    1. Open your settings and tap ‘System’.
    2. Scroll to ‘Gestures’ and tap on ‘Quick tap to start actions’.
    3. You can select the flashlight there and turn it on with two short taps on the back of your phone.
  • On OPPO and OnePlus, you can draw a V on the screen when it’s off to turn on the flashlight. You can also find this under gestures and movements in your settings.
• Google Assistant: Say “Hey Google” to activate Google Assistant and then ask it to turn on your flashlight. Found what you needed and ready to turn it off? You can also ask Google Assistant to turn the flashlight off again.

Flashlight on iPhone: where to find it

If you want to use the flashlight on your iPhone, you also have several options. You can turn on the flashlight through the Control Center, the access or lock screen, or with Siri.

• Through the Control Center: Do you have an iPhone X or newer? Then you open the Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of your screen. Otherwise, swipe up from the bottom edge of your screen. In the Control Center, you can turn on the flashlight and adjust its brightness. You can also turn off the flashlight the same way.

If the flashlight isn’t yet in your Control Center, here’s how to add it:

1. Open your iPhone settings.
2. Tap 'Control Center'.
3. Tap 'Flashlight' to add it to your Control Center.

• Lock screen: If you have an iPhone X or newer, you’ll find a flashlight button on the bottom left of your lock screen. Place your finger on the icon to turn the flashlight on and off quickly. That way, your flashlight is always ready. There’s one small thing: you can’t adjust the brightness this way.
• Siri: You can ask Siri to turn on the flashlight and also to adjust its brightness. Of course, Siri can also turn off the flashlight again.

Turning off the flashlight on an iPhone

You can turn off the flashlight on your iPhone the same way you turned it on: through the Control Center, the lock screen, or with Siri.

iPhone flashlight not working, what now?

Even with all those different ways to turn it on, sometimes the flashlight on your iPhone doesn’t work. As annoying as it is, it happens. But what can you do yourself to bring the flashlight back to life?

• Check if your phone is overheated. Your phone doesn’t need to be overheated from lying in the sun too long. Sometimes your iPhone, or your Samsung or Android, is just doing too much. To prevent damage, many phones automatically turn off certain features, including the flash. Let your phone cool down before trying the flashlight again.
• Check your battery. Is your battery at 5%, or getting close to 1%? When your battery is almost empty, some features may be disabled, including the flash. Charging your phone usually helps.
• Is another app using the flash? If another app is still running in the background, your flashlight might not work.
• Have you let your phone cool down and charged it? If nothing happens yet, restarting your phone may help to bring the flashlight back to life. If that also doesn’t work, you can take more drastic steps and reset your phone to factory settings.

Flashlight app? Don’t do it!

Whatever you do to get your flashlight working again, don’t download a separate flashlight app. For both iPhone and Android phones, there’s no need to download an extra app for a flashlight. Both systems already have a built-in flashlight. You know that now because you just read how to use it.

Still, there are many different free apps to turn on or adjust your flashlight. Don’t download one! Besides the fact that you can already turn on your flashlight easily (and quickly) without an app, those apps are often not safe and sometimes even dangerous . They often ask for too much data, which they sometimes sell. We definitely don’t want that. These apps can also contain annoying ads and may charge you to remove them.

Can you adjust the brightness of your phone’s flashlight?

Whether you can adjust the brightness of your phone’s flashlight depends on the phone you have. On iPhones you can, but on many Android phones you can’t. You can read below how it works.

Adjusting the brightness of the flashlight on your iPhone

Alright, get your iPhone ready: go to the Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of your screen. If that doesn’t work, you might need to swipe up from the bottom of your screen instead. You should see your flashlight there. Press and hold the flashlight button. You’ll see a slider appear to adjust the brightness: up for more light, down for less. You’ve got this.

Adjusting the brightness of the flashlight on your Android

On most Android phones, you can’t adjust the brightness by default, but there’s an exception. With the flashlight on your Samsung Galaxy , you can adjust the brightness. Lucky you. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Swipe down from the top of your screen.
• Step 2: Hold the flashlight icon in the menu.
• Step 3: Use the slider to adjust the brightness. You can choose from five levels.

Time for a new phone?

Can’t update your phone anymore and missing out on new flashlight features? Or are you just tired of your current phone? Shop for a new phone or a refurbished model in our phone shop. Also, make sure if your Sim Only plan still matches with your new phone. If not, you can easily and quickly adjust your plan in the Mijn Simyo app or via Mijn Simyo .