How to use the flashlight on your Garmin watch

With a flashlight now coming built into plenty of premium Garmin watches, the need for a headtorch or any other wearable safety lights has mercifully diminished. 

It's an innovative feature that we've not yet seen replicated on rival sports watches, and means everything from dark training runs to finding your phone down the backseat of your car is now much simpler (and safer).

Despite being a relatively simple concept, though, there are a few things to know about how to use the Garmin flashlight feature - and that's where this quick guide can help. 

Below, we'll explain how to tinker with the torch to get the most out of it. 

Which Garmin watches have a flashlight?

• Garmin Fenix 7X
• Garmin Enduro
• Garmin Tactix 7
• Garmin Instinct 2X
• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro series
  
• Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) series

How to use the Garmin watch flashlight

Wareable

Turning the flashlight on/off

To quickly turn the flashlight on or off, simply double-tap the 'Light' button at 10 o'clock. 

Doing so will leave the display on the same screen, though you can also activate the flashlight from the quick menu. 

To find this, long-press the 'Light' button until the carousel appears and scroll round to 'Flashlight'.

From here, you should then be presented with the option to turn the flashlight on/off with the 'Start/Stop' button at 2 o'clock.

Changing the Garmin flashlight's strength

Changing the flashlight's strength works identically to changing the color of the light. 

There are four different strengths of white light to choose from once in the full flashlight menu.

Getting the flashlight to show red light

Wareable

With the quick double-tap explained above, the Garmin watch's flashlight will default to its last setting. 

In order to turn the light from white to red, then, you'll have to follow the steps to bring up the 'Flashlight' menu through the 'Light' button's carousel and then simply tap the red icon once the menu appears.

Note: On the Garmin Enduro, this alternate color is green instead of red.

Changing the Garmin flashlight's strobe effect

Once in the flashlight menu, hold the 'Menu' button at 9 o'clock until additional options appear.

You should see both 'Strobe' and 'Distress Pattern'.

Select 'Strobe' and pick between 'Blink', 'Blitz', 'Pulse' or 'Beacon' modes. Alternatively, you can also select 'Custom' if you want to dial in the speed and color of one of these modes. 

Enabling or disabling the flashlight for workouts

Wareable

Naturally, using the flashlights for added safety during workouts is one the main intended purposes for the feature - and ensuring it's turned on is easy. 

Follow these steps to do so:

1. Select an outdoor sports profile from the list on your Garmin watch.

2. Just before you start the activity, long-press the 'Menu/Up' button in order to bring up a list of options. 

3. Select the first, which should be something like 'Run Settings', and scroll all the way down to 'Flashlight Strobe'. 

4. Here, you can tinker with which strobe mode you prefer and whether the light's status is set to on or off. 

5. Next, simply back out of those menus and begin your activity. 

Tip: If you've selected a strobe mode for your workouts, a double-tap of the 'Light' button during your session will turn it back to a steady glow - and vice versa.