Water flashlight

What this is for

The water flashlight lights the camera flash and the whole screen at full brightness together, then locks the screen against touch. It is made for wet hands - rain, a shower - where a touch screen presses itself. You leave it with a volume button, never by touching the glass.

In this order

Open Water flashlight from the programs menu, the programs panel or a home-screen widget. If it is not offered, switch it on first in Settings, on the Management tab, in the group Additional programs and scenarios. The camera flash and the screen 1 light up together at once.
From this moment the screen is locked. Only the time 2 and the reminder 3 are shown, and touching the glass does nothing: wet fingers or drops cannot close, dim or press anything. The hint Locked. Use the buttons 3 means the volume buttons 4.
To switch the light off, press a volume button 4: volume up, volume down or mute. The screen closes when you let go of the key, and the volume does not change.
The screen stays awake for as long as the light is on, so you do not need to touch the phone to keep it lit.
If you leave another way 5 - the power button or a system gesture - the flash goes out as well, so it never keeps burning in a pocket. Do not rely on a gesture in water: drops can trigger it and the light disappears.

The elements

The lit screen

1Lit screenA white screen at full brightness with the camera flash on, deaf to every touch.

The window is white at the highest brightness and the camera flash burns together with it. A phone without a camera flash still works: the lit screen is then the only light. Only the brightness of this window is raised, never the brightness setting of the phone, so after you leave it the phone is as bright as before.

Every touch on the screen is swallowed on purpose, so water on the glass cannot close or change anything. The status bar and the navigation buttons are hidden for the same reason. A deliberate swipe from the screen edge can still bring the system bars back for a moment.

Time and reminder

2ClockThe time in large black digits, readable at arm's length.

It moves on at the start of every minute. Whether it reads in 12 or 24 hours follows the unit system of the app (Metric shows 24 hours, US shows 12), not the clock format of the device. It is only a display and cannot be touched.

3Locked. Use the buttonsReminds you that touch is off and that a button is the way out.

The line is always on the screen, so you do not have to remember how to leave in the dark or in the rain. The buttons it speaks of are the hardware buttons of the phone, first of all the volume buttons. Tapping the text does nothing.

How to leave

4Volume buttonsThe way out: press a volume button and the light goes out.

Volume up, volume down and mute close the screen and put out the flash. The screen closes when you release the key, and that press is swallowed, so the volume of your music or calls does not change. The camera key, the button on a headset and the play/pause media key do the same on devices that have them.

The Back button is deliberately not one of the exit keys: with gesture navigation Back arrives from a swipe across the glass, and wet glass makes such swipes by itself. A device with no volume buttons has to use the other ways out below.

Shortcut: Volume up / Volume down / Mute

5Power button and system gesturesOther ways out. They also put the light out, but water can trigger them.

The screen does not pin itself and does not block system gestures. The power button turns the display off, and a Home or app-switch gesture takes you to another screen; in both cases the flash goes out at once, so it cannot be left burning in a pocket or a bag.

In water do not count on these: a drop on the glass can cause a gesture, and then the light disappears when you need it. Use a volume button when you want to switch it off yourself.