By: Nick Gambino

Users have had the ability to turn their iPhone into a flashlight going all the way back to the first Apple phone thanks to third-party apps. It wasn’t until iOS 7 in 2013 when Apple built the flashlight directly into the phone, accessible through the control center and later the lockscreen as well.

It was absolutely one of the best features added to the iPhone. They even added brightness control, but since then there hasn’t been much in the way of changes to the flashlight…until now. The resident iPhone flashlight is getting a huge update in iOS 18.

The current flashlight allows users to adjust the brightness between four levels which is fine but pretty limited. In the iOS 18 developer beta you not only have more control of the brightness but also the width of the light beam.

Now when you tap the flashlight icon in the control center, a new UI will pop up in the Dynamic Island. From here you can adjust through many levels of brightness, not just the basic four. To do that, you’ll swipe up and down just like the previous controls, but in this new design it’s not just four hard-lined levels.

This is also where you’ll adjust the width of the beam to your liking. You can go from a straight on column of light or spread it out for a wider range to cover more area. To accomplish that, you simply swipe left and right.

So up and down for brightness, left and right for beam width.

The feature is pretty intuitive and makes the tool a lot more usable. Previously, you might use the flashlight for some quick lighting when it’s too dark and don’t want to flip on a light or wait for your eyes to adjust. Now, you might actually use it for more focused work instead of breaking out your real flashlight. The ability to concentrate the beam of light in a focused spot is super helpful.

This is a small part of the new iOS 18 update but is a pretty cool one.

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