Adding a flashlight option to the iPhone might have been one of the most useful additions to any iOS. Such a simple thing, that I and millions of other iPhone owners use on a regular basis. The only real drawback is needing to swipe up the Control Panel whenever you need to turn ON or turn OFF the flashlight. If you are actually stuck in a completely dark room, doing that action can actually be difficult. This is where a physical button or a tap on the Home screen would be a great workaround.
While there is no real fix for turning ON your flashlight faster, we are just going to show you the basic fundamentals for turning ON and OFF your iPhone flashlight.
How to instantly turn your iPhone into a flashlight
At the Home screen or the Lock screen swipe up from the bottom bezel (right above the home button) to bring up Control Center.
With Control Center open, you’ll see the app shortcuts at the bottom of the menu. To the left is the flashlight icon. Tap on this icon to turn on the flashlight.
That’s it. With your flashlight ON, point the back of your iPhone to where you would like light up. Super simple, and super helpful.
How to instantly turn off your iPhone flashlight
If you are not on the lock screen
When your phone is unlocked you can only turn OFF the flashlight by bringing up the Control Center and tapping either the flashlight or camera icon. Why the camera icon?
The iPhone camera uses the flashlight for its built-in flash, so it is impossible to have both the flashlight and Camera app running at the same time. So, when you tap and launch the Camera app from the Control Panel, your flashlight will turn off. Of, course when your screen is unlocked there is no advantage for choosing the camera icon over the flashlight icon. But that changes when we are on the lock screen.
If you are on the lock screen
When you are on the lock screen you’ll have access to the Camera shortcut in the bottom-right corner. You will still need to launch the flashlight by swiping up for the Control Center and tapping its icon, but you can now simply swipe up (about halfway up the screen) on the Camera icon to turn off the flashlight. Swiping only halfway up the screen, will not launch the Camera app.
Swiping up on the Camera icon from the lock screen requires only one step instead of the two steps you would need for swiping up Control Center followed by tapping the flashlight icon. In previous iOS version you simply had to tap on the Camera icon from the lock screen, and the flashlight would turn off. This doesn’t seem to be the case for iOS 9. Also, if you are jailbroken, you can turn OFF/ON the flashlight by double-tapping anywhere on the screen.
Do you use your iPhone as a flashlight?
