Credit: iPhone in Canada

The effect can be seen in the YouTube video below, showing off what looks like a green iPhone 11 — without a case — glowing in the dark with its flashlight turned on. Other users chimed in on Reddit and confirmed that their own iPhones glow. But while it’s actually pretty cool, there’s a good chance that this is not intended behavior.

This year’s iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro devices have a new back design that’s crafted from a single piece of glass. The raised, squarish camera bump is also part of this glass back. What appears to be causing this is the fact that the iPhone 11’s flash is also surrounded by this glass camera bump. It looks like the light is actually bleeding out of the camera bump, causing the diffused light spillage on the rest of the glass back. In other words, it’s probably unintentional.

It’s not clear which specific colors that this light bleed affects. It looks like you can get it on green and red iPhone 11 models, but you won’t be able to on black iPhone 11 models (likely due to the glass being too dark for the effect).

While there’s a similar effect on the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, user reports suggest that it’s much more muted. That’s likely due to the frosted, matte glass used on those devices.

On the other hand, several users reported that you can get a similar effect if you have a clear case on your iPhone.

Try It Yourself

If you’d like to try this yourself, you’ll have to do it in a dark environment. It’s probably helpful if you cover the actual flash with a piece of tape or something similar. That way, you’ll get more of the diffused light instead of just the flash.

It may also be helpful to turn up your iPhone’s flashlight brightness. That’s done by long-pressing on the Flaslight icon in Control Center.

Another interesting party trick may be to experiment with the light bleed and the LED Flash for Alerts setting. You can turn that on in:

1. Settings
2. Accessibility
3. Audio/Visual
4. LED Flash for Alerts