- Google may add native flashlight brightness controls to Pixel phones in the next quarterly release of Android 16.
- While the hardware has long supported it, Pixel users currently need to use an app to adjust the flashlight’s intensity.
- The new feature, discovered in the latest beta, will likely make the Quick Settings flashlight tile expandable.
Nearly every smartphone has an LED flash on the rear that you can use as a flashlight in a pinch, but most don’t let you adjust its intensity, leaving you stuck with a light that’s either too dim or too bright for the situation. Google Pixel phones currently lack a flashlight brightness slider in the Quick Settings panel, but that could finally change in the next quarterly release of Android 16.
While Samsung Galaxy devices have offered flashlight brightness controls for years, stock Android only added support for the underlying functionality with the Android 13 release in 2022. This update introduced an API that allows apps to control flashlight brightness, provided the phone’s hardware supports it.