How to turn iPhone flashlight on and off again in 13+ ways

Here are all the ways I know with which to turn on/off your iPhone flashlight. As you can see, there are 5 ways to turn it on and 7 to turn it off again. I think you’ll probably end up using one or two of them regularly and hardly ever using the rest.

5 ways to turn your iPhone flashlight on

#1: From the lockscreen

The first flashlight tool you’ll probably use is to tap the torch icon (it’s at the lower left) on the lockscreen to turn your iPhone’s torch on.

#2: From Control Center

But you can also activate Control Center and tap the torch icon to switch your flashlight on.

You can also tap and hold that torch icon to enter a new screen in which you can raise and lower flashlight brightness.

#3: Use Hey Siri

Even though Control Center can be fast, it may be faster if you use Hey Siri on your iPhone to handle your flashlight, you just need to say “Hey Siri, turn on flashlight”, or “Hey Sure, turn off flashlight”, and your bumbling assistant will switch it on.

#4: Just use Siri

If you don’t use “Hey Siri”, just press the Side button (or Home button on some iPhones) to invoke it and say “Turn on flashlight”.

You can use other triggers, such as: “Will you turn on my flashlight?”, or “Turn off my flashlight.”

#5: Use Shortcuts

That’s four ways so far, but you can also use Shortcuts to create flashlight control. OK, it is a little unnecessary given Siri already does the job, but does let you use a different Siri trigger word to switch your torch on.

• Just Open Shortcuts
• You’ll need to Tap the Plus button, then tap the Add Action button in the next screen.
• Type ‘flashlight’ in the search field at the top, and then choose the Turn Torch
• Tap the item to the right of Turn Torch to choose how it works: this instruction can be set to turn your flashlight on, off, to toggle between both states or to ask each time.
• Choose toggle.

What you now have is a Shortcut you can use from your Shortcuts. Whenever you tap it (or use Siri to make it happen) your torch will turn off and on again.

#6: Use Back Tap

An additional tool came in iOS 14 in the form of Back Tap, a new feature lets you tap the back of your iPhone to get some tasks done — including running a Shortcut. (Thanks to reader Yayah for pointing this out).

Of course, what this means you can now create a Shortcut (as detailed in #5 above), set it up as a Back Tap gesture, and turn your flashlight on and off using a couple of taps on the back of the device.

I’ve explained how to use BackTap elsewhere, but to recap:

• Open Settings>Accessibility.
• Choose BackTap in the Touch section.
• You can choose either Double Tap or Triple Tap, for your gesture.
• Choose the one you want to use and configure this to run the Shortcut created in #5 above.
• Now you’ll be able to turn your flashlight on and off in a couple of taps.

Here is Apple’s video that explains how Back Tap works.

https://youtu.be/IMbd0dTvr0I

7 ways to turn off iPhone flashlight

What about when your flashlight is already on? Assuming your flashlight is on, here’s how to turn it off again.

#1: From the lockscreen

Now it’s time to turn it off again: Tap the torch icon (it’s at the lower left) on the lockscreen to turn your iPhone’s torch off.

#2: From Control Center

Rather than using the icon, you may want to activate Control Center and tap the torch icon to switch your flashlight off.

#3: Use Hey Siri

You can also say “Hey Siri, turn off flashlight” and off it will go.

#4: Just use Siri

If you don’t use Hey Siri just press the Side button to invoke Siri and say “Turn off flashlight”.

#5: Use the Camera

Of course, you can also use my favorite little iPhone flashlight tip: That means that when your iPhone flashlight is on just tap the Camera app icon on the lock screen or in your iPhone and it will automatically switch off.

#6: The fastest tip

Of course, you can also just swipe left on the lockscreen to open the camera app. This automatically switches off your flashlight.

#7: Use Shortcuts

If you set the Shortcut you made earlier to toggle, you can now use it again to switch your flashlight off.

Are there any other ways to turn your flashlight off and on again? I don’t think so, but please let me know if you come across one — every other reader needs them too!

Finally, if you are searching for even more useful tips, please explore the full collection here.

Photo by Tobias Cornille on Unsplash

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