Much as I appreciate the iPhone's blindingly bright LED screen in direct sunlight, it's not always the nicest sight to see in a nighttime environment. This is especially true for iPad pros and iPhone users alike who may need their device for use in darkened theaters or while surveying the night sky.

In short: When you need to use your iPhone or iPad without blinding yourself or nearby neighbors, sometimes iOS' lowest Brightness setting just doesn't cut it. But there's a better way, thanks to Apple's Accessibility settings.

How to make your iPhone darker than the lowest Brightness setting

Open the Settings app. Go to General > Accessibility > Zoom. Enable Zoom. Set the Zoom Region to Full Screen Zoom. Tap on Zoom Filter. Select Low Light.

Your screen will immediately dim; from here, you can do more minor brightness adjustments from Control Center. (Those of you hoping for another way to save your battery life will sadly be disappointed, unfortunately; the screen "dimming" is actually just a filter, not a physical dimming of your screen.)

How to set up a shortcut for ultra-low brightness

Those six steps above are a nice time-waster and all, but you can make ultra-dimming your screen at any time a cinch by enabling Apple's Accessibility shortcut.

Open the Settings app. Go to General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut. Select Zoom, if it's not already selected.

Now, whenever you wish to activate (or deactivate) Zoom's Low Light brightness setting, triple-press the Home button and press the Zoom button on the resulting pop-up.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments!