Future iPhones may sport a ‘Lock Screen Flashlight’ that could adjust brightness, beam width, and more

Apple has applied for a patent (number US 20230396871 A1) for a “Lock Screen Flashlight” on an iPhone. It would all you to adjust the brightness, and more, of the smartphone’s flashlight.

About the patent filing

The patent filing relates generally to electronic devices with an illumination element, and more specifically to techniques for changing output properties such as beam width and brightness, of the light emitted by the illumination element.

According to Apple’s patent filing, user interface objects such as a flashlight icon or camera icon would be accessible from a lock screen for toggling a state of a flashlight in the device, a camera application. Features within the camera app would be accessible in the device’s locked mode for, as mentioned, adjusting brightness, beam width, and more.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “An electronic device displays on a display device, a user interface including a first user interface element, the first user interface element being associated with the illumination element, and detects a first input at a location corresponding to the first user interface element. In response to detecting the first input and in accordance with a determination that the first input meets first criteria, the device changes a beam width of a light beam emitted by an illumination element from a first beam width to a second beam width, wherein the second beam width is different from the first beam width.”