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How to change your phone torch brightness on Android

5 min read
A figure standing under a single street light in the dark
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

The short answer

On Android 13 or later, if your phone's flash supports more than one level, you can dim the torch: some phones show a slider when you long-press the Flashlight tile, and torch apps such as Kelvin show one too. Phones on older Android, or whose flash has only one level, can only switch the LED on or off; use a dim screen light instead.

Get Kelvin

The phone torch is usually all or nothing: blinding when you want to check on a sleeping child, and not quite enough when you are looking for keys under a car seat. Whether you can do better depends on two things: your Android version, and your phone’s flash hardware.

What changed in Android 13

Before Android 13, an app could only switch the flash LED on or off, through CameraManager.setTorchMode. There was no brightness value to set.

Android 13 (API 33) added two pieces:

  • a hardware property, FLASH_INFO_STRENGTH_MAXIMUM_LEVEL, which says how many brightness levels the flash supports;
  • a call, turnOnTorchWithStrengthLevel, which switches the torch on at a chosen level.

Neither needs any permission. There is more on why in why a flashlight app does not need camera permission.

The catch is the first property. The phone maker decides whether to expose levels. Many phones report a maximum of 1, which means the flash is on or off and nothing in between, even on the newest Android.

How to find out whether your phone can dim

  1. Check your Android version. Open Settings, then About phone, then Android version. If it says 12 or lower, the torch cannot be dimmed by any app.
  2. Try the Flashlight tile. Swipe down for Quick Settings and long-press the Flashlight tile. On some phones, a brightness slider appears. On others, nothing happens or the phone opens a settings page.
  3. Try an app that reads the hardware. A torch app that uses the Android 13 API can show you directly. Kelvin reads the maximum level when it opens. If the phone supports levels, a slider appears beside the torch. If not, the slider is hidden rather than shown doing nothing.

Dimming the torch with Kelvin

In Kelvin, the brightness slider runs down the right edge of the light screen. Drag it down to dim the LED and up to brighten it. The level is kept on your phone, so the Quick Settings tile and the home screen widget switch the torch on at the same level next time.

The same level carries into strobe, SOS and Morse, so a signal can be sent dimmer when you are close to someone, or at full strength when you need to be seen. For SOS timing, see how to send SOS with your phone flashlight.

Can you make the torch brighter?

No app can push the LED past its hardware maximum. “Super bright” torch apps that promise more are, at best, switching the LED to the maximum it already had. What you can do:

  • Clean the lens and flash. A fingerprint over the LED scatters a surprising amount of light.
  • Remove a thick case that sits close to the flash, if the beam has a dark ring.
  • Keep the phone cool. Some phones lower or switch off the flash when they get hot, and a torch left on in a pocket gets hot.

When the LED is the wrong light

Often the real need is less light, not more. The LED is a hard point of light that ruins night vision and wakes people up. The screen makes a softer, wider light:

  • A warm screen light at low brightness is enough to read by or to cross a room.
  • Red light disturbs your eyes’ adaptation to the dark much less than white. Kelvin’s Night vision theme turns the whole interface red for that reason.
  • A ring of light around the screen edge works as a rough key light for a video call. How to look good on Zoom covers where to put it.

In Kelvin, switch to Screen at the top of the light screen. Choose one of seven colours, set the warmth from candle-warm to daylight, and set the brightness and the shape: Full, Frame or Ring.

Battery and heat

The LED draws steady power, and brightness levels help here too: a dimmer torch lasts longer. Whatever level you choose, Kelvin’s auto-off timer, in Settings, switches the light off after 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes, so a torch knocked on in a bag does not drain the battery.

  • Flashlight
  • Android

Questions people ask

Can I make my phone flashlight brighter?

Not beyond its maximum. Each phone's LED has a fixed top brightness, and torch apps cannot exceed it. On phones that support levels, an app can turn the LED down from that maximum, and back up to it, but never past it.

Which Android version added torch brightness control?

Android 13 (API 33). It added turnOnTorchWithStrengthLevel and a hardware value, FLASH_INFO_STRENGTH_MAXIMUM_LEVEL, that tells an app how many levels the flash has. If that value is 1, the flash is on or off only.

Why is there no brightness slider for my torch?

Either your phone runs Android 12 or older, or its flash hardware reports a single level. Both are common. Kelvin checks both when it opens and hides the slider when it would do nothing.

How can I get a dim light if my torch cannot dim?

Use the screen. A screen light at low brightness, in a warm colour or red, is far gentler than the LED, and red light disturbs night vision less. Kelvin's Screen mode and its red Night vision theme are built for that.

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