Moto X gets a new flashlight gesture with Android 5.1

The Moto X gets more than fixes in Android 5.1. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

The Moto X gets more than fixes in Android 5.1. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Motorola has already begun testing Google’s latest Android 5.1 Lollipop software for the second-generation Moto X, and the release includes a brand new gesture that allows users to “chop twice for flashlight.”

As demonstrated by the animation below, the new gesture can be found within the Moto Actions settings, and allows the flashlight to be enabled by performing a chopping action twice. The same gesture can be used to disable the flashlight once it’s finished with.

Chop twice for flashlight. Screenshot: Droid-Life

Chop twice for flashlight. Screenshot: Droid-Life

It’s a small addition, but a very handy one. How many times have you needed your smartphone’s flashlight when your hands are full? Now, when you get home at night and you’re carrying a bunch of groceries, you can access your flashlight with two flicks of the wrist.

For now, the “chow twice for flashlight” gesture is only available on the latest Moto X with Android 5.1, but it’s likely Motorola will also make it available to other handsets — including the original Moto X — in the future.

And if Motorola doesn’t, you can be sure a third-party developer will.