Quick Answer
This feature enables control over the width of the light beam, making it possible to switch between a narrow, focused beam and a wider spread of light. Once you have updated your iPhone (14 Pro and newer) to iOS 18, open Control Center, tap on flashlight icon to turn it ON, and use the new horizontal slider to adjust the beam width: sliding left narrows the beam, while sliding right widens it. Release the slider when you have the desired beam width.
With iOS 18, Apple has introduced a host of customizations and nifty features that are meant to elevate the user experience. You can now move the app icons anywhere on the home screen (Android users laughing in the corner), lock apps behind Face ID, change the color of the icons, apply light or dark themes to the icons, customize the Control Center, and much more. One interesting feature that Apple has introduced is the ability to change the focus of the flashlight in iOS 18. Now, this is something new and unique.
The big question in your mind would be, who’d benefit from this? Notably, along with the intensity, you can easily change the pattern of the flashlight beam. One of the best use cases for this is for photographers, who want the light source to beam the light in a certain way or direction. Or for those camping or wanting to read without disturbing others.
In this guide, we will show you how you can adjust the focus of the flashlight in iOS 18. Let’s get right into it.
How to adjust the flashlight focus on iOS 18?
The iOS 18 update brings a new and useful addition to the iPhone that shows you an animated UI for the flashlight, which you can adjust to change the focus or intensity of the flashlight on your iPhone. Sliding the UI will change the radius or focus of the flashlight, while sliding vertically will adjust the intensity of the flashlight.
Here’s how you can do it on your iPhone:
- Open the Control Center.
- Press the flashlight icon.
- When the flashlight is enabled, the Dynamic Island grows to a larger box. The box will show you a light with a visualization of the light it currently casts.
- You will see horizontal and vertical slide bars, which mean the following:
- Vertical bar: Tweak the intensity or focus of the light
- Horizontal bar: Tweak the brightness or level
- To adjust the focus of the flashlight in iOS 18, you need to slide the horizontal bar and select how wide or narrow the beam of light appears.
Here’s a video shared by an iPhone user that shows you how you can change the focus of the flashlight in iOS 18;
There are three different levels of width that you can achieve using the horizontal bar. The feature is only available to beta users since the iOS 18 update is currently available as developer beta. The stable version will come out later this year.
How does Apple narrow the flashlight beam in iOS 18?
An important question that could pop into your mind is how Apple achieved a narrow flashlight beam in iOS 18. Well, the option to change the focus of the flashlight in iOS 18 takes advantage of the new flashlight hardware introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro. Apple introduced the Adaptive True Tone Flash with the iPhone 14 Pro, and it selects which segments of the LEDs in the flashlight are illuminated.
When it is used or adjusted in a way that is in tandem with the lens assembly, then the flashlight focus is narrow or wide, depending on the type of shot the user is taking. This is done automatically because the flash is adaptive. In Apple’s own words, the adaptive flash uses “an array of nine LEDs that change pattern based on the chosen focal length.”
Will flashlight adjustment be available on older models?
Since the new iOS 18 feature requires hardware to let users change the focus of the flashlight on iPhones, this feature isn’t available for older iPhone models. Notably, the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the only phones supporting this feature. However, the new animation that shows up when turning on the flashlight is available for older models as well.
