How To Open Flashlight On Iphone Xs

How to turn on/off your iPhone flashlight in 13+ ways

by · Published January 14, 2020 · Updated September 21, 2020

A man with a pair of torches

Apple hasn't yet made color-changing iPhone flashlights.

Here are all the ways I know with which to turn on/off your iPhone flashlight. There are 5 ways to turn it on and 6 to turn it off again. 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

Tap the torch icon (it's at the lower left) on the lockscreen to turn your iPhone's torch on.

#2: From Control Center

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

If you use Hey Siri on your iPhone, you just need to say "Hey Siri, turn on 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

OK, this one's a little unnecessary, but does let you use a different Siri trigger word to switch your torch on.

Open Shortcuts
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
Tao 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.

Now you'll have a Shortcut you can use from your Shortcuts. Whenever you tap it your torch will turn off and on again.

iOS 14 is now available, including new features such as Home screen widgets.

#6: Use Back Tap

New in iOS 14 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).

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 theTouch section.
You can choose eitherDouble Tap orTriple 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.