“I feel like people are silently judging me. Like in, I don’t know how to use my phone. But I’m into tech! I know how to use tech! I’m an early adopter” , says Wilson, who is 47. “So it’s obviously a design issue on Apple’s part.
Wilson is not alone. We’ve heard from dozens of readers about their flashlight problems, and many more Twitter usersfrom the age of 22.
The flashlight button has been on the iPhone lock screen for several years. It sits on the opposite side to an almost identical button that turns on the camera and turns on the light with a light press. Turning on the flashlight can drain a phone’s battery, flash someone’s eyes, or just be embarrassing. (To skip to our tips on how to make this happen less, scroll down.)
Apple declined to comment on the matter.
To understand why this was happening, I asked people experiencing the problem to demonstrate how they pick up and put away their phones. People who don’t have flashlight issues took care not to touch the glass, gently holding their smartphones at the edges like a CD. iPhone owners who turned on their lights were more likely to cling to the phone as if it weren’t a giant slab of touch glass, gripping the front and back of the device between their fingers.
People of all ages seem to struggle with this problem. Tori Daniels, 25, says they’ve been turning on the flashlight for years, most recently when they walked into a dark room and realized it was being lit by their back pocket. Daniels says it’s a button placement issue by Apple more than user error.
“I think it’s a level comparable to the fly-is-down thing. Not really bothersome. Rather, ‘Oh, shoot. How long has this been going on? ‘ said Daniels.
Drew Turner, 40, doesn’t think people judge him when the light is on, but it still stings when they say something. He keeps his phone in his back pocket, flashlight pointing unknowingly for all to see.
“I guess I think it’s a problem for me because it doesn’t seem to happen to everyone, but I don’t know what I do differently,” Turner says.
Accidentally doing things on cell phones has a rich history dating back to end-to-end dialing. Calling someone inadvertently doesn’t happen as much since lock screens became common, but now we’re triggering other things on our smartphones.
Divya Goel, 25, says turning on the flashlight is a common problem in her group of friends. But the flashlight doesn’t preoccupy her as much as the camera, which once recorded a full 10-minute conversation from her pocket. “The accidental camera thing is a bit unsettling to me,” she says.
Another common iPhone accidental issue is triggering SOS and calling 911, which can happen by pressing the side button too long.
But it’s the flashlight that seems to be the most common problem, perhaps because the result is the easiest to see.
Many people find the fickle button so frustrating that they’ve found their own ways to turn off the light. Some bypass the screen altogether and use Siri to turn off the light. (Try, “Hey, Siri, turn off the flashlight.”)
Michael Wong, 29-year-old virtual reality start-up founder, turns on the camera to quickly turn off the light.
“I just swipe right a little bit and the flashlight turns off. Swiping right a little bit is much easier than holding down the flashlight button,” Wong explains.
Tricks to turn on your flashlight less
Try these tips one at a time to see if they solve your problem. You can also watch my quick video version.
- Make it harder to press: Go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Haptic Touch. Set the touch duration to “Slow”.
- Disable tap to wake up: Go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch. Disable the Tap to Wake setting.
- Disable wake-up call: Go to Settings → Display & Brightness. Disable the Raise to Wake setting.
- Hold it differently: Hold your phone by the sides at all times and assume the screen is always on.
- Get an iPhone Folio case: These cases include hard covers that fold over the screen, so there’s one more step to access.
Chris Velazco contributed to this report.
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