How to turn on your Android phone’s flashlight

Let’s be honest, the LED light on the back of your smartphone works far better as a flashlight than a camera flash. Dedicated low-light camera modes produce far better results than a small light ever could. That said, that tiny light is a great replacement for the bulky flashlight hiding in your kitchen cupboard.

You can use various methods to turn on the flashlight on your Android phone. Some of them are well known, but you might be surprised by a few mentioned in this guide. Read on to learn more about these different methods for turning on your flashlight and why you might want to try them out on your own device.

Tap the Quick Settings tile for the flashlight

This is likely the default choice for many since you can easily access the flashlight from Android’s Quick Settings menu. It lets you quickly access your flashlight by swiping down on your status bar and tapping an icon. To check your phone’s flashlight Quick Settings shortcut, do the following:

1. Swipe down on your status bar, then tap the Pencil icon.
2. Scroll down and look for the Flashlight tile.
3. Long-press the tile and drag it to your desired location.
4. Hit the back arrow when you’re finished.
5. The Flashlight tile should now appear where you placed it in your Quick Settings panel.
   • Tapping Flashlight turns it on, with another tap to turn it back off.

If you frequently use the flashlight on your Android smartphone, you might consider placing it in one of your first four tiles for quick access. You can always rearrange its location if needed by tapping the Pencil icon again. When using the At a Glance feature on Pixel smartphones, you can also turn the flashlight off directly from your home screen. You can do the same at your lock screen, making it even easier to turn the flashlight off when you’re done using it.

Use the Android 13 Quick Tap flashlight option

Google introduced the Quick Tap feature to the public with Android 12, allowing you to double-tap the back of your phone to perform certain actions. However, it was missing something that many users wanted — a flashlight option.

With the Android 13 Developer Preview, you can finally double-tap the back of your phone to use the flashlight. To access the Quick Tap feature and set it to the flashlight action on Android 13 (if you have it), try this:

1. Open the Settings App, then go to System → Gestures → Quick Tap.
2. Turn on the feature by pressing the Use Quick Tap button.

3. Scroll down, then tap the Toggle flashlight option.
4. Double-tap the back of your phone to make sure you see the Quick Tap detected notification.

5. Close the Settings App.
6. Now when you quickly tap the back of your Android phone twice, the flashlight turns on, and a second time turns it off.
   • If you keep triggering the flashlight by accident, try enabling the Require stronger taps setting.

More people will have access to this feature when Android 13 launches to the public later in 2022. But using the flashlight with Quick Tap is helpful in a pinch, so you might find you like this method even better than the Quick Settings tile.

Use the Google Assistant flashlight command

1. Bring up Google Assistant using your favorite method.
   • Some of the most popular ways to bring up Google Assistant include swiping from the corner, saying Hey Google or OK Google, and double-tapping the back of your Android smartphone.
2. Say or type “Turn on flashlight.”
   • This command has multiple variations, so saying “Flashlight on” or just “Flashlight” also works here.
3. The flashlight will come on with a Flashlight popup.
4. Tap the button to turn it off when you’re finished.

You can also say or type “Turn off flashlight,” “Flashlight off,” or just “Off.”

Create your own Google Assistant flashlight command button

This method still relies on using the previous Google Assistant command; however, you can also create a button on your home screen to trigger your flashlight. You need to make a custom Block action using Google’s Action Blocks accessibility app.

The app allows you to use Google Assistant voice commands right from your home screen with the press of a button:

1. Download and install the Action Blocks app.
2. Open the Action Blocks app to the main screen, then tap I Agree.
3. Press the Create action block button.
4. Go to Create custom action.
5. In the Action textbox, type flashlight on, then press Test action.
   • Your flashlight should come on.
   • Tap the button in Google Assistant to turn it off and close the screen.
6. If the action worked as expected, tap the Yes button to continue.
   • You can choose to disable the Speak action out loud and Vibrate options if you don’t need them.
7. Once you’re done, tap Next.
8. Now you need to name the custom action.
   • Type Flashlight on.
   • Press the Save action block button at the bottom.
9. Press Next on the Add to home screen message.
10. Tap the Add to Home screen button.
11. Press Go to home screen.
12. You should see the Flashlight on button you just created.
13. Tapping the shortcut will turn the flashlight on, then you can press the button in the Google Assistant screen to turn it off.
    • You can long-press the button to adjust its size and move it around on your home screen as needed.

Consider making a second action button to turn off the flashlight when you press it. Having two buttons allows you to turn the flashlight on and off again without manually bringing up Google Assistant.

If you ever need to change your button, you can go back to the Action Blocks app, tap the block in question, then Edit.

It might look like a lot of work to get these two flashlight buttons set up and placed onto your home screen, but it’s quite simple — and extremely useful. Feel free to arrange both of them however you want, but the bottom of the screen is a good choice for large Android smartphones.

Shake your phone to turn on the flashlight

The other methods for turning on your flashlight are part of the Android system or from Google, but we’ll also mention a third-party app to check out. Shake Flashlight can activate the bright light on your Android smartphone using a simple shaking motion, which might be handy in certain situations. With over 1 million downloads, it has been a popular choice since 2015 for third-party Android flashlight apps. To get started using this app on your phone, you can do the following:

1. Download the Shake Flashlight app from the Google Play Store.
2. Open the app to the main screen, then tap the power button on the flashlight itself.
3. Enable the camera permission for Shake Flashlight so that it can access the light on the back of your phone.
   • In this case, the light and camera are tied together, so permission is required for the flashlight to work.
4. Once you grant the camera permission, the flashlight should come on immediately afterward.
5. Try shaking your phone to turn the flashlight off and back on again.
6. If you find the shaking motion inconsistent, tap the Settings icon in the upper right, then go to Shake Sensitivity.
7. You can adjust your device’s motion sensitivity as needed to see if that makes it any better.

Use your Android phone to light the way

Your Android device is more than just a phone, especially when you use the best apps the Play Store offers. Now that you’ve learned about the various ways to turn the flashlight on your phone, you can try what works best for your needs. You can even combine some options to make your own unique method as well — in any case, the number of flashlight shortcuts on Android isn’t lacking. Feel free to chime in if you have another helpful way of turning your flashlight on and off.