Almost all modern Android smartphones have a flashlight. This is the camera flash. When the flashlights are activated, it just burns permanently. Not all Android phones behave the same, though, so you’ll find the flashlight feature in slightly different places. However, the process is usually similar.

Android flashlight: where do you turn it on?

On most Android smartphones you will find the flashlight in the quick menu. This appears when you swipe your finger from top to bottom on the screen. You will usually see various icons at the top for quick access and your notifications at the bottom.

Usually you see the flashlight between the symbols. You simply turn it on by clicking on it. Some brands require you to expand the quick bar further because the Android flashlight is lower.

At Xiaomi, for example, this quick bar is somewhat hidden. On a Xiaomi phone, if you swipe from top to bottom on the left side of the screen, you’ll only see your notifications, but not the quick menu.

If you pull down the screen on the right, you will see the quick bar including flashlight. This is where you turn them on.

Android flashlight: where to turn off?

Once you’ve managed to turn the flashlight on, turning it off is a breeze. To do this, navigate back to the quick bar and press the flashlight button again.

With Xiaomi smartphones, there is another trick. If you turn on the flashlight and lock the screen, you can turn it off by pressing the key you used to lock the screen again.

Adjust the brightness of the Android flashlight

You cannot adjust the flashlight brightness on all Android smartphones. As far as we know, this only works with Samsung Galaxy models. If you want to set the brightness here, the first step is to navigate back to the quick bar where you activated the flashlight.

Now press and hold the flashlight icon until the settings for it appear. In this menu you can now set a brightness in five levels. Then tap “OK” at the bottom.

Are Flashlight Apps Helpful?

You can also turn the flashlight on and off with a third-party app. In our opinion, this has hardly any advantages, but disadvantages. Such flashlight apps are often given a lot of permissions for your data that they don’t really need. Caution is therefore advised here. In addition, it is often the case that they have little added value compared to the existing functionality.

For example, with some apps you can control the Android flashlight with gesture control or have it light up in different patterns. You get a widget that you can put on the screen. If these are features that interest you, an app might be for you.

Some flashlight apps promise you to change the color of the light. But that is not possible at all, because flashing LEDs in smartphones simply cannot do this. Not even software can change that. If an app does promise you that, be careful and don’t download it. It could be malware.