OK Google, Lumos Maxima: Does the Spell Still Work?

OK Google, Lumos Maxima is a fan phrase that puts Google's wake word in front of a Harry Potter spell name. If a clip showed you a phone lighting up to it, you'll want the exact words before you try it in front of a kid. This post first ran in December 2023. It said the trick worked on both phones but named no source.

We checked the spell against the flashlight phrases Google documents, then against what changes as Gemini replaces Google Assistant. Next come Siri flashlight commands on iPhone, our copy-ready phrases, and how to make your own Lumos with a routine or a shortcut. The last two sections explain how we checked 16 made-up phrases and list all 16 phrase results, row by row.

Does "OK Google, Lumos Maxima" still turn on the flashlight?

We can't confirm it. Our saved set holds 26 official pages, from Google Assistant and Gemini help articles to Apple's iPhone and Shortcuts guides, one Google blog post and four app store listings. None of them uses lumos, nox or maxima. The spell fact-file addresses we tried on the official Harry Potter site returned 404, and we didn't use fan sites as proof.

Zero mentions doesn't prove it fails. Google's own list of things to ask warns that "Some queries won't work on all devices and in all languages."

Assistants also answer requests that no help page spells out, so a word missing from a page isn't proof that your phone, or the next app update, will refuse it. What it does mean is that neither company has written the spell down, so no page commits Google or Apple to any result from it after an update.

We didn't say a single phrase to a phone, so try the spell once yourself before a kid is watching. If nothing lights up, use line 1 of our copy list, which is Google's own wording.

The flashlight phrases Google documents

The Assistant help article on what you can ask Google Assistant lists "Turn on the flashlight." under Control your phone, right beside "Take a photo." It's listed again for the Pixel 4 and later, under managing your phone's settings, next to taking a screenshot and turning on Do Not Disturb. Google doesn't call the page Android-only, but every example in that part sits under the heading On your phone or tablet, beside texting, calling and WhatsApp.

The Google Assistant listing on Google Play says it too: "Control your phone: Open apps, adjust settings, turn on the flashlight, and more."

The wake word half is documented. Google's Pixel setup page for Google Assistant says to say "Hey Google" or "Ok Google." Its steps for the Google Assistant app on iPhone and iPad give the same two wake words, in the opposite order.

No saved Google page shows an off example. So a Hey Google, turn off the flashlight request rests on guesswork, not on Google's wording.

Diagram by DigitalTreed: documented wake words and flashlight wording by assistant, from the pages we saved on November 5, 2026.

What changes as Gemini replaces Google Assistant

Those Assistant phrases now sit inside a handover to Gemini, with a timeline from Google's blog post on upgrading Assistant users to Gemini, dated March 14, 2025. Later that year, the post said, "the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices." It also planned to pull the classic app from mobile app stores for new downloads, and to move tablets, cars, headphones and watches to Gemini as well.

A footnote said that on phones that don't meet Gemini's minimum system requirements, "Google Assistant functionality will not change at this time." So older phones keep Assistant. Both store listings for the classic app were still live. We looked on November 5, 2026. The Google Play page for Google Assistant offered Install and showed Updated on March 23, 2026. The App Store listing for Google Assistant still loaded, with its last version dated July 23, 2025. Gemini, which is built on the kind of large model that our plain-English guide to large language models explains, has its own Google Play listing, updated October 13, 2026.

For the flashlight, the Gemini help pages, as we read them on November 5, 2026, tell you more than the dates do. Google's Gemini getting-started page says Gemini takes over on Android only when the Google app is your default digital assistant app. Some phones "Get a notification from Google Assistant to switch to Gemini". The lock screen page says Gemini can "Control some phone features, like turn on the flashlight and change the volume". And the Gemini mobile app overview admits Gemini "gets help from Google Assistant for some familiar quick voice action features". So some quick phone actions still lean on Assistant under Gemini, which fits the flashlight wording staying the same on both.

The same overview lists the limits. It warns that "Some familiar features from Google Assistant may not be supported in Gemini, which is still evolving."

Hey Google and some Assistant features aren't available in all languages and countries, or for supervised accounts, and supervised accounts cover many kids' phones. So check the child's settings first, much as our Screen Time passcode guide does for Apple's parental limits.

Diagram by DigitalTreed: dates from the Google blog, the Google Play and App Store listings and our November 5, 2026 check.

Siri flashlight commands on iPhone

That leaves Siri as the documented route. Apple's iPhone User Guide page Turn the iPhone flashlight on or off gives the request to say: "Siri, turn on the flashlight." Apple's page on using Siri to get things done lists the same line under Adjust iPhone settings, next to turning up the volume. Unlike Google, Apple titles its page Turn the iPhone flashlight on or off, and it says Siri can do both.

To wake it, Apple's Siri settings guide says you can say "Siri" or "Hey Siri", and its page on turning on Siri lists the same two wake words. Saying just Siri works only "on supported iPhone models in some languages and regions." Neither page mentions Lumos, so "Hey Siri, Lumos" is as much a guess on an iPhone as the Google version is on Android.

Google's apps on iPhone don't fill that gap. The App Store listing for Google Assistant names texts, reminders, music, directions and weather. It doesn't name the flashlight. Yet the Google Play listing for the same app puts turn on the flashlight in its very first bullet point of features. Google's iPhone steps for the Gemini app cover voice or typed chat, going Live and making images. The App Store listing for Gemini names no phone controls either. So for Google's own assistants on an iPhone, we found no flashlight line at all. If Siri can't hear you, our iPhone audio message fixes walk through the microphone checks.

Apple's flashlight page also lists two ways that skip voice: Control Center and a Lock Screen button.

Copy-ready flashlight phrases

Every line pairs a wake word and a command from the pages in the table above, with the spell words left out because no official page we read lists them.

• Hey Google, turn on the flashlight.Copy
• Ok Google, turn on the flashlight.Copy
• Siri, turn on the flashlight.Copy
• Hey Siri, turn on the flashlight.Copy
• Hey Google, what can you do?Copy
• Turn on the flashlight.Copy

Lines 1 and 2 are for Android. Line 1 uses the wake word Gemini documents. Lines 3 and 4 are for iPhone, and which one works depends on the wake word you picked when you set up Siri on that phone. Line 5 is how Google's Assistant page suggests finding more ideas. Line 6 is for when you've already opened the assistant by touch.

On Gemini phones, the getting-started page lists two touch options: a long press on the power button or a swipe up from a corner.

Make your own Lumos with a routine or a shortcut

If you want the spell itself, both companies document a way to add your own phrase. Apple's Shortcuts guide on running shortcuts with Siri says Siri runs any shortcut in your collection when you say its name. So a shortcut named Lumos should run when you say "Siri, Lumos". Apple adds that when a name matches a standard command, "Siri runs the shortcut instead of the standard command." We didn't build one on a phone. Check your Shortcuts app for a flashlight action first, since Apple's guide doesn't name one. Our Messages icon aesthetic steps show how that app is laid out.

Android uses Google's personal Routines. A personal Routine can start "When I say to my Assistant" plus a phrase you pick. Google's own examples use bedtime to set an alarm and turn off the lights, and let's go home to give a traffic update and read your texts. A Lumos Routine's action can be "Enter a command that works with Google Assistant", such as Turn on the flashlight. The page says actions that adjust phone settings, like phone volume, work only in personal Routines, so build this one as a personal Routine. On Gemini, the overview lets you start a routine by voice once Google Home is connected to Gemini Apps.

Drawn by us: how a shortcut or a personal routine could answer to Lumos, built from Apple and Google help pages and not tested on a phone.

For Nox, you'd make a second shortcut or routine with a different name and an off action, if your app offers one. Google says routines "are for convenience only, not safety- or security-critical use cases." In a power outage, then, skip the routine and switch the light on by hand.

How we checked 16 made-up phrases

A script saved the 26 pages as text on November 5, 2026. No phone heard any phrase. The results show what the pages document, not what a phone would do.

What we tested

We wrote 16 made-up phrases, the kind people try, and a small Python script, test/match_phrases.py. It first confirms that each documented phrase in its list is quoted on a saved page. Then it counts the spell words on all 26 pages and matches every made-up phrase against the documented wake words and commands, scoring how many words they share. Five phrases matched documented wording word for word.

All 16 phrase results, row by row

Four of the five spell phrases had a documented wake word, but their commands weren't on any saved page. Four came back close but not exact, two had no documented wake word at all, and one paired Siri with a command that only Google's page lists. Five of the 11 misses involved a spell word. The table copies test/results.json from the November 5, 2026 run, in the order we wrote the made-up phrases. Word overlap is the share of words a phrase's command part has in common with the closest documented command.

Word matching fails in rows 12 and 14. Turn on the torch scored 0.60 because it shares turn on the with the real command, though torch never appears on Google's pages. Turn off the flashlight scored the same while asking for the opposite. Then there's row 9. Okay Google missed only because Google's pages spell the wake word Ok, which is a spelling gap that a phone listening to your voice may well ignore.

Diagram by DigitalTreed: our 16 made-up phrases grouped by result from the November 5, 2026 run of test/match_phrases.py, with 0 spell-word hits on 26 saved pages.

If your Android phone is slow to answer when you call the assistant, our guide to stopping background apps on Android shows what to restrict.

Our Grok vs ChatGPT comparison covers prices and privacy for chat assistants, a different job from these voice commands. For another short word with several meanings, see what RD means in a text.

How we made this guide: We pulled the text of 26 pages from Google's help centers, Apple's guides, the Google blog, Google Play and the App Store. Every quote here was matched against those copies, and the 16 test phrases are our own. Facts checked by the DigitalTreed team on November 5, 2026.

First published December 2023 with a claim that the spell worked on both phones. Rewritten November 5, 2026 from Google and Apple pages only, without that claim, since no official page backs it.

Sources

• Google Assistant Help: What you can ask Google Assistant
• Google Assistant Help: Get started with the Google Assistant on Pixel
• Google Assistant Help: Set up Google Assistant on iPhone or iPad
• Google Assistant Help: Automate daily routines and tasks with Google Assistant
• Gemini Apps Help: Get started with the Gemini mobile app (Android)
• Gemini Apps Help: Get started with the Gemini mobile app (iPhone)
• Gemini Apps Help: What you can do with your Gemini mobile app
• Gemini Apps Help: How your Gemini mobile app can help when your phone is locked
• The Keyword (Google blog): The Assistant experience on mobile is upgrading to Gemini, March 14, 2025
• Google Play: Google Assistant
• Google Play: Google Gemini
• App Store: Google Assistant
• App Store: Google Gemini
• Apple iPhone User Guide: Turn the iPhone flashlight on or off
• Apple iPhone User Guide: Use Siri to find information and get things done
• Apple iPhone User Guide: Change Siri settings
• Apple iPhone User Guide: Turn on and activate Siri
• Apple Shortcuts User Guide: Use Siri to run shortcuts with your voice