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How to get the Moto X's shake-activated flashlight on any Android phone

By Nick Todorov

Published: Aug 16, 2015, 5:23 PM

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How to get the Moto X's shake-activated flashlight on any Android phone

Motorola's phones are awesome for a whole bunch of reasons – they're customizable, bloat-free, and deliver great value for their cost, to name a few. But it is also the tiny, yet very handy features built into them that make the newest Moto X and Moto G phones so likable. For example, shaking your Moto is a recognized as a gesture and turns on the phone's LED flashlight. Another shake turns it off. And the gesture works even from your lock screen. Neat, huh?

Well, the good news is that you can get this shake-activated flashlight feature on any other Android phone. As long as it has an LED light, of course. You just need the right app for the purpose, and an app that does the trick is Flashlight LED Genius. It is free to download and works like a charm once it is configured. Here's how you do that.

The first step is to download Flashlight LED Genius from the Play Store. Open the app once it is done installing. Note that ads might pop up from here and there, including fullscreen ones that you might tap on by accident. This is annoying, but normal as the app is ad-supported.

Right in the middle of the app's UI, there's a big button to toggle your phone's LED light on or off. But the shakey-shakey function isn't on yet. To activate it, pull up the tab from the bottom of the screen. You should now see a switch and a slider. Tap on the switch to enable the gesture.

And that's pretty much it! To give your new flashlight gesture a try, press your phone's power button to put it into stand-by. Now press the power button again to bring up your lock screen. Shake your phone – the LED should turn on now. Note that the gesture is not enabled during stand-by. You need to be on your lock screen for it to work. If you're on a home screen, shaking the phone seems to turn the LED off, but won't turn it on again.