How to remove or replace the flashlight and camera icons on iPhone Lock Screen

While the flashlight icon on the iPhone Lock Screen is handy, the camera button is redundant, as you can simply launch the camera by swiping left on the Lock Screen. So, if you want to remove or switch these default buttons for some other feature, you have the option to do that.

iOS 18 Lock Screen with no flashlight camera buttons and two other iPhone mockups showing Shazam and cellular data buttons on Lock Screen

You can remove or replace the Lock Screen flashlight and camera buttons with other app shortcuts of your choosing, such as Translate, Calculator, Apple TV Remote, Shazam, Cellular Data, Voice Memo, Wallet, Accessibility features, and more.

You can even add controls from supported third-party applications like Instagram, Slack, and ChatGPT, provided that the app is installed on your iPhone running iOS 26.

Edit the flashlight and camera buttons on your iPhone Lock Screen

1) Touch and hold anywhere on the unlocked Lock Screen or the notification panel until it shrinks down, and tap Customize.

Customizing Lock Screen clock on iPhone

2) To remove the default flashlight or camera control, tap the minus button (-) and then hit Done from the upper right corner.

Camera icon removed from iPhone Lock Screen

3) To change these toggles to something else, tap the minus button (-), followed by the plus button (+). Now, select one of the available controls and tap Done.

Adding new control to iPhone Lock Screen

If you select the Open App or Shortcuts controls of the Apple Shortcut app, remember to take one more step and choose the app or shortcut you want to assign to the Lock Screen.

Choose shortcut or app for iOS 18 Lock Screen buttons

One final thing to note is that, like Lock Screen widgets, the customizations you make to the flashlight and camera toggles are also tied to that particular Lock Screen. If you switch to a different Lock Screen, you’ll have to repeat the above steps to change the default controls.

Also, check out: 18 settings to change and new features to try in iOS 26