Huawei Honor 8 Sets Record for Highest-Altitude Smartphone Livestream

A Huawei Honor 8 strapped to a weather balloon lifted off from the SSC Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden on Monday in a bid for the highest livestream ever sent from a smartphone.

The balloon, carrying the phone alongside a camera and other equipment, was expected to burst at around 30,000 meters (98,425 ft) — at which point the phone would float back down by parachute.

Peter Lundkvist of Huawei Technologies Sweden said the balloon burst at 18,421 meters instead. "Hopefully, Guinness (World Records) will accept this as a world record in highest smartphone livestreaming," he said at the time.

Update: Guinness World Records later verified the record — the highest-altitude smartphone livestream, at 18.42 km (11.45 miles), achieved by Huawei Sweden with an HONOR 8 on September 5, 2016 (HONOR).

Reported by Reuters Television; additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian.