One of the great little built-in features of iOS is the ability to turn your iPhone into a flashlight on demand. Apple made use of the camera’s LED flash, making the iPhone a serviceable --and always available-- emergency light.
With watchOS 4, the company is bringing the flashlight concept to the Apple Watch. This is a feature I’ve been hoping for. I always have my watch on, but don’t always have my iPhone handy. A flashlight on my wrist would be really useful. But how well does it work?
Swipe up to get the Flashlight on Apple Watch running watchOS 4.
Screen capture by Brad MoonAs it turns out, the Apple Watch flashlight is more of a soft nightlight than a focused flashlight. That would be the difference between the technologies involved.
watchOS 4 turns the display backlight of your Apple Watch into a flashlight --or nightlight.
Brad MoonWith the iPhone, Apple is repurposing a powerful LED flash that’s designed to brightly illuminate a subject several feet away. That means a controllable beam intensity that has the power to light up objects in the darkness and function as a true replacement for a traditional flashlight.
With the Apple Watch, the company is instead cranking up the backlighting on the display. That offers the advantage of being able to change the light color to bright red, for increased visibility of the wearer at night. But it also means no focused beam with any kind of distance projection. Instead you get a soft glow that could help you to find your way in the pitch dark, but is better suited for helping find something in a dark drawer.
A flowering shrub illuminated by Apple Watch flashlight in the pitch dark, from three feet away... [+]
I should point out that the photo I took was of an original Apple Watch running watchOS 4. It was also shot with an iPhone 7 Plus, so there's a lot of noise, although it does accurately represent the degree of illumination by the Apple Watch. The Series-2 and new Series-3 versions have an upgraded display that’s brighter so results should be slightly improved --although still nowhere near the capability of an iPhone.
Still, it’s a handy feature to have on your wrist. And if you're more interested in being seen at night than in using your watch as a flashlight replacement, the new watchOS feature is especially effective.
