These hidden features of the Galaxy S26 will save your eyes while scrolling at night
Have you ever been enjoying a movie, a game, or even scrolling through Instagram videos, when all of a sudden, your enjoyment comes to a halt due to a bunch of moving lights on the screen?
Whether it’s a club scene in the latest John Wick movie or an intense scene in an anime, flashing lights can be very damaging, and even risk concussing someone if they’re bad enough. Thankfully, Samsung’s latest phones have a built-in feature that will dim the display when it detects lights shining on the screen.
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Stopping the strobe
Strobing lights can be uncomfortable even if you don’t have epilepsy. Samsung doesn’t tout this “dim strobing” feature as an anti-seizure feature, so the feature is designed to provide comfort enhancements rather than medical conditions.
The “dim strobing” setting also does not detect the phone’s low-frequency PWM dimming or change it in any way. If you’re sensitive to PWM dimming or LED flickering, you’ll need to buy a phone with a higher PWM rating, like the OnePlus 15.
It’s also important to note that Samsung’s “dim strobing” feature only works for a few select apps. Samsung doesn’t provide a list of supported apps, and so far in my testing, only YouTube seems to fade out when the phone senses strobing. Instagram and TikTok didn’t blur when I outputted a solid video, and I couldn’t find movies with enough strobing to trigger the feature on Netflix, Peacock, or the Google TV app.
Even with the limited number of compatible apps, this feature can be very useful in helping to reduce the discomfort that comes with flashing lights. Here’s how to enable it:
1. Open it system settings by selecting settings from the app drawer, or pull down to the right of the status bar and tap the gear icon in the top right.
2. Scroll down and select Accessibility.
3. Select Vision Development in the list.
4. Scroll to about the middle of the list and tap the toggle slider next to it Turn off strobing.
Other accessibility options to consider
While you’re still in the accessibility options, there are a few additional settings worth enabling to make the display as comfortable as possible. If you’re like me and often find that the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s (or any Samsung phones) display is too bright, enabling “Extra dim” can make a big difference.
Additional Dim has been improved in Android 16 to include a customizable power slider, so you can keep it brighter during the day and lower it at night for improved comfort. This lowers the maximum brightness of the display without adjusting the pulse width of the dimming cycle, making it perfect for dimming without making it worse.
In my testing, enabling Extra Dim reduced peak brightness by 80%, and enabling Privacy Display reduced that by another 74%. These two features alone can make the phone more comfortable for anyone who finds it too bright, and it’s very easy to power up, too!
1. Open it system settings by selecting settings from the app drawer, or pull down to the right of the status bar and tap the gear icon in the top right.
2. Scroll down and select Accessibility.
3. Select Vision Development in the list.
4. Scroll about halfway through the list and touch the words Dim extra.
5. Tap to convert next Openedthen adjust the slider to your liking.
6. Tap to convert next Extra Dim Shortcut to add the Extra Dim toggle to your quick settings.
Now that Extra Dim and the shortcut are both enabled, it’s time to customize your quick settings toggles to easily turn them on and off.
1. Swipe down to the right of your status bar to open the Quick Toggles menu. The status bar is at the top and includes icons and a clock.
2. Tap that pencil icon editing buttons.
3. Tap Add a controller at the bottom of the screen.
4. Scroll down to show and confirm that the Show privacy button it is open.
5. Scroll down all the accessibility options and press the button Additional Dim icon enable button.
6. Navigate back again drag the More Dim and Privacy Displays buttons when you look for them in your quick change menu. You can do this by long pressing the icon and dragging it.
Now, if you want to enable (or disable) one of these features, just pull down your status bar and press the buttons. If you happen to want to adjust any of these features without going through the settings again, you can just press the buttons for a long time, and it will take you to that section of the settings to configure either the Privacy Display or the Extra Dim option. Now you can enjoy your phone at night again!
See the privacy display in action on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, the first phone that can protect your messages and other sensitive information when someone else is looking at it.
