Continued progress in cell-phone devices has made them powerful mobile computers, equipped with sophisticated, permanent physical sensors embedded as the default configuration. By contrast, the incorporation of permanent biosensors in cell-phone units has been prevented by the multivocal nature of the stimuli and the reactions involved in biosensing and chemical sensing. Biosensing with cell phones entails the complementation of biosensing devices with the physical sensors and communication and processing capabilities of modern cell phones. Biosensing, chemical-sensing, environmental-sensing, and diagnostic capabilities would thus be supported and run on the residual capacity of existing cell-phone infrastructure. The technologies necessary to materialize such a scenario have emerged in different fields and applications. This article addresses the progress on cell-phone biosensing, the specific compromises, and the blend of technologies required to craft biosensing on cell phones.