You Aren't Using Your Pixel's Flashlight at Full Brightness

Google doesn't want you to see in the dark, apparently.

Unlike other smartphones from companies like Apple and Samsung, Google doesn't let you control the flashlight intensity of your Pixel. While that might mean the torch is a bit brighter than you may like in some cases, at least it's always as bright as can be, right? Wrong.

As it turns out, not only does Google keep you to one level of brightness for your Pixel's flashlight, that set brightness isn't even the LED's maximum. It's not 90%, 80%, or 70%, either. In fact, it's 50%—half its potential brightness. If you've ever had trouble finding something in the dark with your Pixel 7 or Pixel 8, that may be why.

Redditor Adnaks noticed the problem and posted about it on r/GooglePixel on Sunday. Luckily, they have a solution: If you use the right third-party flashlight app, you can manually adjust your flashlight's intensity, including to degrees above 50%. Adnaks' recommendation is Flashlight Tiramisu, a flashlight app you need to sideload onto your Pixel, but Android Police says other flashlight apps on the Play Store should work as well.

Whichever app you choose, fire it up and check what your flashlight's intensity is set to. If it's running off the Pixel's default setting, it should be at 50%, or exactly as bright as your Pixel's flashlight has always been. Just bump up the intensity if you need that extra brightness to find what you're looking for in the dark.

It's not clear why the Pixel of all phones won't let you adjust the brightness, or caps your brightness at 50%. It's possible Google thinks you'll damage the LED or your phone if you keep it at 100% for too long, but since plenty of other devices don't have this restriction, it seems a bit silly. That said, Apple enforces the opposite restrictions: Your iPhone's flashlight can actually be less bright than the lowest iOS setting, but you need a shortcut to take advantage of it.