Both the resolution and the optical magnification have gotten better. Initial mobile phones had an equivalent to a 28mm lens in the 35mm format, today you get 5

Both the resolution and the optical magnification have gotten better. Initial mobile phones had an equivalent to a 28mm lens in the 35mm format, today you get 50-70mm equivalents too. In any case, a modern smartphone even with a rather wide angle lens does still get more details than an average eye. So what people indeed are seeing are strange lights which move around, which well, are just some lights they can't explain. And the smartphone will show that rather clearly. And that is just smartphones, that is not talking about all the high-power digital cameras now being quite ubiquitous, one would expect at least some interesting shots popping up on the internet.