Apple Watch is already equipped with a flashlight function, but it is not as famous as the iPhone's flashlight. That's because Apple prefers to hide the fact that the Apple Watch also has a flashlight compared to the iPhone's flashlight. Press the Apple Watch's side button, then swipe down the screen until you see a flashlight icon. After tapping the flashlight icon, you may be disappointed because when you turn on the flashlight, the entire Apple Watch screen surface turns completely white (or flashes white, or red, to attract help).
At this time, when you look at the surface of the watch, you will feel that it is almost weak. But that's because Apple doesn't want bright light shining into your eyes.
If you turn your wrist away and you're in a dark enough place, you'll see the light brighten significantly after a while. It's not blinding though, and you have to put your arms at a weird angle to get the light where you want it.
That doesn't seem to be good enough for Apple. Now, Apple is working on how to attach a brighter external flashlight to the Apple Watch band.
Because the company has been researching alternatives to watch flashlights, details can be found in a newly obtained patent application titled "Modular Lighting Assembly for Wearable Devices."
The patent proposes not using a screen flashlight, but a real flashlight on the Apple Watch. The flashlight will be installed on the watch strap, close to the watch chassis, "separated from the display screen of the wearable device" and "illuminate wherever you point it."
"In other words," Apple says, "the light source...when emitting light, produces visible light projected in a direction that is parallel, or at least substantially parallel, to the axis defined by the user's appendage (not shown) as it passes through the band."
As with patent applications in the past, the details of a patent application are all about how something is done and very little about why it is done. However, this patent application briefly mentions a specific benefit, or at least one benefit that can be achieved if the flashlight comes with its own battery.
"When the modular light source includes a dedicated (i.e., independent) battery, the wearable device is less susceptible to the display draining the wearable device's battery," Apple said.
Therefore, we can understand that the Apple Watch in the future may have a brighter flashlight that can be more effective at aiming where we want, and may not drain the battery too easily.
The patent application is credited to two inventors, including Daniel J. Hiemstra, who previously developed a flat-edged design for the Apple Watch.