Rhodopsin is the classical light sensor. While rhodopsin is important for image formation in the eye, the requirements for opsins in non-image formation and in extra-ocular light sensation were revealed later. Most recent is the demonstration that an opsin in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is expressed in pacemaker neurons in the brain and functions in circadian photoentrainment. After more than a century of analysis, the dogma has been that opsins are exclusive light sensors. Remarkably, through studies in Drosophila, light-independent roles for opsins in multiple senses are emerging. These include roles in temperature sensation and hearing. While these findings are uncovered in the fruit fly, there are hints that opsins have light-independent roles in a wide array of animals, including mammals. Thus, despite the decades of focus on opsins as light detectors, they represent an important new class of polymodal sensory receptors.