Being able to dim flashing lights on iPhone is an important feature for anyone who has or knows someone with photosensitive epilepsy. This safety feature, released with iOS 16.4, automatically detects flashing or strobing lights on video content, and dims the screen to mitigate the risk of them causing seizures.
This is hugely important if you have photosensitive epilepsy, or if you live in a household with someone who does. It can even also be an extremely useful feature for anyone without that condition. According to the UK-based Epilepsy Society, it is also common for people without photosensitive epilepsy to feel unwell or disoriented by flashing lights and patterns, so this function would help them too.
Personally, black and white optical-illusion-style patterns and harsh flashing lights give me headaches behind my eyes, so I now have this enabled full time.
The iPhone is renowned for its raft of safety features, from the ability to share your location via satellite to automatic crash detection — it's part of why they're considered some of the best phones around — so it's great to see this one added to the list. Apple have also released the dim flashing lights feature on Mac.
Better yet, you can dim flashing lights on iPhone incredibly easily, and this guide is here to show you how.
How to dim flashing lights on iPhone
You'll need to ensure you're running at least iOS 16.4 to be able to use this feature. We can show you how to update an iPhone if you need some help.
1. Go to Settings > Accessibility
Open the Settings app and tap Accessibility.
2. Tap Motion
Select the Motion option.
3. Toggle on Dim Flashing Lights
Finally, toggle on Dim Flashing Lights.
That's really all there is to it. You can now feel a little safer using your smartphone if you suffer negative effects from flashing lights, or know someone that does.
If you'd like to read more tutorials to help you get the most out of your iPhone, we can certainly help. Learn how to enable lens correction on iPhone for natural-feeling photos. Check out the iPhone hidden features that massively improve smartphone gaming. And find out how to stop the iPhone lock button ending calls, if that annoys you as much as it does me.
