Android is copying one of the most underappreciated iPhone features

We’ve known for some time that Google has been working on incorporating a system-level LED intensity slider into the Android OS, and it looks like the company is continuing to polish up the feature prior to officially launching it to the public.

In its earlier pre-release incarnations, this new flash slider interface lived within Android’s Quick Settings panel, accessible by long-pressing on the flashlight tile. This is still the case now, but the slider itself has been upgraded from a simple colored bar UI to a stylized depiction of an actual real-world flashlight.

This small-but-noticeable user interface tweak, which was first spotted by the folks over at Android Authority, is contained within the latest 2510 Canary channel release of Google’s flagship mobile operating system.

Google first rolled out this new, dedicated Canary channel back in the summer, with it serving as a replacement for Android’s previous developer preview program. Canary is a separate pre-release channel that the company uses as a testing bed for in-development operating system features, prior to making them publicly available in beta testing form.

iOS’ flash intensity slider is an underappreciated software gem

Outside the Apple orchard, there’s room for another flashlight intensity slider UI

When Apple first introduced its redesigned flashlight adjustment interface back in iOS 18, I was shocked by the attention to detail placed within such a seemingly innocuous corner of the OS. The feature came together perfectly, with its smooth animations, its Dynamic Island integration, and its granular control over not only LED brightness, but also beam width.

While Android’s upcoming riff on this iPhone feature isn’t quite as technically advanced (for now, only brightness level is adjustable), I nonetheless appreciate that Google is prioritizing both utility and aesthetic appeal in this upcoming update.

As for when the all-new flashlight adjustment slider might hit general availability, Google has yet to illuminate us with any official timeline details. The feature isn’t present in the latest beta build of Android 16 QPR2, which makes it more likely that it’ll ship alongside Android 16 QPR3 sometime in March 2026 at the earliest.