iOS 18 lets you change the radius and focus of the iPhone's flashlight

On Monday, at the WWDC 2024 keynote event, Apple talked about the new features and changes coming to iOS 18. The freshly-baked update will bring a new Passwords app, Apple Intelligence service, dark mode for icons, game mode, new wallpapers, and a T9 dialer, among various features.

However, there is a small but useful addition that Apple didn't talk about during the keynote event: you can now change the radius of your iPhone's flashlight. iOS 18 has a new animated UI for the flashlight, where you can slide horizontally to change the radius or focus of the light and slide vertically to adjust the intensity.

While the stable version of iOS 18 will come out later this year, you can try out the feature on the developer beta update available for supported iPhone models. As shown in demo videos uploaded by users on X (formerly Twitter), you can turn on the flashlight from the Control Center or Lock Screen, and the animated UI will drop down from the Dynamic Island. You can tap on the Dynamic Island if the UI doesn't show up.

A possible explanation for this feature is that Apple has given users manual control of the Adaptive True Tone flash the company introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max. In Apple's own words, the iPhone's adaptive flash uses "an array of nine LEDs that change pattern based on the chosen focal length."

iOS 18 also brings another change related to the flashlight. Apple now allows users to customize the buttons on the Lock Screen, which currently shows flashlight and camera options as default on iOS 17. This can prevent users from accidentally turning on the flashlight when holding their iPhones, as they can replace the button with something else.