How to use your Apple Watch as a flashlight

In this tutorial, we will show you how to turn on the flashlight and alert light on your Apple Watch so you can see things in the dark without hurting your night vision or safely take an evening run on the road.

White flashlight and red alert light on Apple Watch Ultra

As you might have already figured out, the Apple Watch doesn’t have an LED light like you have on your iPhone. So, how do you turn it into a flashlight? Well, using the watch screen!

It’s a super neat idea and gives sufficient light at night to do things like illuminate a keyhole or navigate your way around the bedside clock and such, all without causing discomfort to your eyes, as the light is not very bright like the iPhone torch is.

Three Apple Watch flashlight modes

  • White light: This is your standard all-white flashlight for those times when you need to light a darkened door lock or illuminate objects in the dark.
  • Flashing white light: This mode is a safety feature for when you’re out for an evening run or bicycle ride, but it shouldn’t be viewed as a substitute for proper ANSI Class 3 outerwear with a real running light.
  • Steady red light: Useful for night reading, when assisting someone in an emergency situation, getting people’s attention by waving the red light around at night, or simply lighting nearby objects while preserving your night vision.

Note: You can change the flashlight brightness only in watchOS 10 or later.

Turn on the flashlight and alert light on Apple Watch

  1. Press the Side button on your Apple Watch to open the Control Center.
  2. Tap the flashlight icon, and it will turn into a bright white torch.
  3. Rotate the Digital Crown to increase or decrease the screen brightness. You can also tap the screen to enable full brightness.
  4. From this screen, swipe left to activate the flashing white light and swipe left once again to turn your watch screen into a solid red flashlight.
  5. To turn off the flashlight, swipe down from the top of the screen or press the Digital Crown or Side button.
Turning on flashlight on Apple Watch

It will drain the battery faster

Since your Apple Watch display is shining like a star to provide light, it will significantly affect the battery if you use it for a very long time.

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