Have you ever been enjoying a movie, a game, or just browsing Instagram videos, when suddenly your enjoyment comes to a screeching halt thanks to a bunch of strobes on the screen?
Whether it’s a club scene in the latest John Wick movie or a power-up scene in an anime, strobes can hurt a lot and can even risk giving someone a seizure if they’re bad enough. Fortunately, Samsung’s latest phones have a built-in feature that will dim the screen when it detects strobes on the screen.
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Stop strobe
Strobe lights can be incredibly uncomfortable even if you are not prone to seizures. Samsung doesn’t mention this “dim strobe” feature as a way to prevent epilepsy, so this feature is primarily designed to offer comfort improvements rather than a solution for a medical condition.
The “dim strobe” setting also doesn’t address the phone’s relatively low frequency. PWM dimming or alter it in any way. If you are sensitive to PWM dimming or LED flicker, you will need to purchase a phone with a higher PWM speed, such as the OnePlus 15.
It’s also important to note that Samsung’s “dim strobe” feature only works in a few select apps. Samsung doesn’t provide a list of supported apps, and so far in my testing, only YouTube seems to dim when the phone detects strobe light. Instagram and tiktok It didn’t dim when I watched a video with a strong strobe, and I couldn’t find any movies with enough strobe to trigger the feature on Netflix, Peacock, or the Google TV app.
Even with the limited number of supported apps, this feature can be immensely useful in helping to alleviate the annoyance caused by strobe lights. Here’s how to enable it:
1. Open system configuration by selecting settings in the app drawer, or by scrolling down on the right side of the status bar and tapping the gear icon at the top right.
2. Scroll down and select Accessibility.
3. Select Vision improvements from the list.
4. Scroll to the middle of the list and tap the slider next to dim strobe light.
Other accessibility options to consider
While you’re still in the accessibility options, there are a few more settings worth enabling to make viewing as comfortable as possible. If you’re like me and usually find the Galaxy S26 Ultra (or any of Samsung phones) screen is too bright, enabling “Extra Dim” can make a big difference.
The extra dim light was improved in Android 16 to include a customizable intensity slider, so you can keep it on a brighter setting during the day and lower it at night for added comfort. This reduces the maximum brightness of the display without adjusting the pulse width of the dimming cycle, causing it to dim appropriately without worsening the strobe.
In my tests, enabling Extra Dim reduced the maximum brightness by 80% and enabling Privacy Display reduced it further by another 74%. These two features alone can make the phone infinitely more comfortable for anyone who finds them too bright, plus they’re extremely easy to enable!
1. Open system configuration by selecting settings in the app drawer, or by scrolling down on the right side of the status bar and tapping the gear icon at the top right.
2. Scroll down and select Accessibility.
3. Select Vision improvements from the list.
4. Scroll to the middle of the list and tap the words Extra dim.
5. Tap the button next to Inand then adjust the slider to your liking.
6. Tap the button next to Extra Dim Shortcut to add the Extra Dim switch to your quick settings.
Now that Extra Dim and the shortcut have been enabled, it’s time to customize the quick settings options to make it easier to turn it on and off.
1. Swipe down on the right side of your status bar to open quick toggle menu. The status bar is at the top and includes icons and the clock.
2. Touch the pencil icon to edit the buttons.
3. Tap Add a control at the bottom of the screen.
4. Scroll down to show and make sure Privacy display button is enabled.
5. Scroll to Accessibility and tap the Extra faint icon to enable the button.
6. Navigate back and drag the Extra Dim and Privacy Display buttons wherever you want in your quick toggle menu. You can do this by holding down the icon and dragging it.
Now, when you want to enable (or disable) any of these features, simply pull down the status bar and tap the buttons. If you ever want to configure any of these features without re-sorting the settings, you can simply long press the buttons and it will take you to that settings section to set the Privacy Screen or Extra Dim option. Now you can enjoy your phone again at night!
See the privacy screen in action on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, the first phone that can protect your messages and other sensitive information the moment someone else looks at it.
