There’s a significant reason why I don’t handle my phone when I’m cooking. Freshly washed hands be damned; if you’re picking up your phone between measuring and cutting ingredients, you’re transferring a lot of gnarly stuff into your food.
Never mind all the filth that my own hands have tracked onto my phone. I’m also thinking about everyone who handles my phone, and I don’t think a day passes without me passing it back and forth to someone to show a song recommendation, directions, a restaurant on Google Maps, or a photo.
I could stand to clean my phone more often. Most of us could. Study after study has shown that smartphones are reservoirs of vast amounts of germs from a variety of bacteria that can make you sick—from staphylococcus aureus to e. coli.
How to kill those phone germs
Wiping down the screen with a dry microfiber cloth is enough for light, routine cleanings. It’ll wipe away fingerprint smudges and face grease, but it won’t sanitize your phone. Just don’t use a paper towel; it could scratch your phone.
To kill the germs on your phone, use a chemical cleaner periodically. Before using any product, check the ingredients on the cleaning spray. Avoid using it if it contains either bleach or hydrogen peroxide among its ingredients.
Don’t spray cleaner directly onto your phone. While most smartphones these days are water-resistant, you don’t want to end up with cleaning spray residue in all the cracks and crevices of your device, such as inside the charging port, where it can’t be wiped off.
Spray your cleaner onto the microfiber cloth, and then rub it onto your device. Apple also recommends cleaning wipes as an alternative—the kind that come pre-soaked in cleaner—if they contain 70% isopropyl alcohol or 75% ethyl alcohol.
Clorox disinfecting wipes are one example cited by Apple.
While these directions are solid for phones made of glass, metal, ceramic, and plastic, your phone’s case is another story. Rubber and plastic cases are fairly durable and can generally withstand the same cleaning methods used for your phone. Since they can carry the same germs, it’s also recommended to clean your case.
Long ago, when I was a younger, less savvy fella, I had a black leather case that didn’t react well to Clorox wipes, bleeding its black dye all over everything. Textile cases, such as Apple’s new TechWoven replacement of the FineWoven disaster, are a whole different story.
When you purchase such a case, be sure to follow the cleaning instructions carefully, or refer to them on the manufacturer’s website. There are too many cases out there to account for one-size-fits-all cleaning directions.
The post How To Clean Your Gross, Nasty, Germ-Riddled Phone (You Really Should) appeared first on VICE.
