When Did Phones Start Having Flashlights?

Phones and smartphones are a part of everyone’s life nowadays. Features like access to the internet and flashlights are useful for everyday life. Yet when did phones start having flashlights? 

The first phone with a flashlight first appeared in the 2000s, but here is what led to the design.

The Japanese Electronic Company Sanyo released the Sanyo SCP-5300 phone in 2002. It was the first cellphone with a camera and a flash. Although it was not very high-tech, it was a revolution. 

There was no front camera, so the flash and the camera were in the back of the device. Somehow, both the companies and the users started to realize the trick. It serves as a flashlight if you hold the flash for some time.

So, companies started to create their flashlights apps so the user would click a single button to activate the flashlight for a long time. No one knows who was the first company to do so. Yet, there are reports of phones with such a feature from 2006, like the Kyocera KX21 Storm.

When Did Smartphones Get Flashlights?

There is little research about flashlights in smartphones or phones in general. Smartphone companies use the flash with the camera to take visible pictures in dark places. People realized it was possible to keep the flash turned on longer, just like a flashlight. So, the invention of the flashlight was an accident. 

With this discovery came the thought of how to keep the light on. That was necessary because the LED light would only turn on when the phone user took a picture. Therefore, it was essential to find a way to keep this light on without turning the camera on.

The first cellphone with a camera and LED flash was the Sanyo SCP-5300, released by the Sanyo Company in 2002. The phone had a button dedicated to the snapshot.  It was genuinely revolutionary since it allowed the user to see the photo on the phone’s screen. Plugging the device into a computer to see the picture was no longer necessary.

Some years afterward, the Indie Devs companies created the flashlight application. The app commands the phone to turn the flashlight on until the user asks for it to be turned off. The technology behind a smartphone’s flashlight is pretty simple. It is similar to having a lamp in your house that you can turn on and off anytime.