Some smartphones are made with shiny materials which attracts fingerprints especially those smartphones with glossy glass finish. Of course, screen protectors such as tampered glass as well as rubber or leather casing are usually recommended to keep your smartphones clean and new but to the disappointment of some, there isn’t usually very obvious changes.

This might have given you the notion of wanting to wipe or you might have even wiped off your smartphone using clean clothing of course, clean clothes are clean after all. But that might be wrong considering the fact that just cleaning your smartphone with a piece of clean cloth doesn’t mean your smartphone will be clean forever afterwards. It doesn’t always happen like that. In fact, you might be surprised to see some fingerprint stains again which you’ll have to clean over and over again.

But if you want to keep your smartphone really clean, then you should avoid just rubbing it with your clothes but instead use some specific cleaning tools which are specially made for smartphone cleaning in order to protect the device long enough especially from damages.

9 things you should never use to clean your phone

PAPER TOWELS: These are very easy to access in the home. But mind you, they should be really kept far away from your smartphone. In case you don’t know, the paper can shred which can make the debris on your phone much more worse and the worst part is scratching your smartphone. Tha won’t make your smartphone attractive.

WINDOW CLEANER: These tools are great house cleaning agents but they’re not meant for smartphone cleaning. Of course smartphones have Gorilla Glass all over them with protective coating, but well, they can get weakened and wear off over time if you stress them with window cleaners over time.

Using harsh cleaners can strip the coating and could leave your phone more vulnerable to scratches. James LeBeau, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, added that any cleanser with an abrasive agent will likely scratch the surface, so those should be avoided entirely.

OTHER CLEANING AGENTS: Lebeau made it known that the scratch resistance of the protective glass (screen) can’t be modified by any cleaning agents. The problem is that these agents rips off the protections on the screen. Another claim was from Bar Keepers Friend stating that its abrasive formula may harm the protective layer. Bon Ami states not to use on glass with coatings. Apple also suggests not using cleaning products to clean your phone.

MAKEUP REMOVER: Makeup removers aren’t the answer to keeping your smartphone clean. They might in fact be a serious problem in many cases considering the fact that some of these makeup removers have some strong chemicals that aren’t pleasing to electronics

USING ALCOHOL: Rubbing alcohol against your smartphone screen can wear off the protective coating on the device’s screen which can get it prone to scratches everytime and that isn’t very good for expensive smartphones like the Galaxy S10 Plus or Huawei P30 Pro. Even Apple says that it’s well off to avoid the usage of alcohol for the cleaning of your smartphone at all cost.

COMPRESSED AIR: The worst thing to do is blowing an intense amount of air into the device. Smartphones are made with delicate materials which can get ripped off when blown with powerful compressed air devices.

DISH SOAP AND HAND SOAP: Even though your smartphone is rated IP 68 and labelled waterproof or water resistant, be warned not to spill dish soap on it just because you tirelessly want to keep it clean at all means. That will damage the device’s components and render it completely useless. Damp clothing that are extremely clean might be a better option than soaps.

USING VINEGAR: Even though Lifehacker suggests using diluted vinegar to cleanse your phone. However, Android Central says to never put vinegar (or alcohol) on the glass parts of your phone due to the oleophobic coating. 

Another antagonist of Vinegar as a smartphone cleaning agent is LeBeau who confirmed that Vinegar can rip off the protective coating of your smartphone. While you can use vinegar for cleaning the back or sides of your smartphone, try and avoid using it on the screen as much as possible.

DISINFECTANT WIPES: Apart from being too dangerous to be left unwashed off your hands after use, using disinfectants on your smartphone which constantly come in contact with your face as often as possible can be a really bad idea. And even LeBeau confirmed that these agents contains alcohol which will strip off the oleophobic (oil repellent) and hydrophobic (Water repellent) that protects your device.

He said the scratch resistance is primarily due to the ion exchange process applied to the glass, where phosphorous replaces sodium in the surface.

How to clean off fingerprint smudges

The skin produces oil constantly and so there will be fingerprint smudges on your smartphone each and everytime you handle it. But that isn’t supposed to be a big problem if you use a microfiber clothing to wipe it clean.

In some serious cases, distilled water can be used to dampen the microfiber clothing and then used to wipe the fingerprints off the device but DO NOT squirt water directly on your device’s screen. Meanwhile, Samsung’s has tips on cleaning your smartphone too.

How to Remove Sands and Lints from your Smartphone

There are little spaces which these lints and sands can hide on your smartphone usually at the crevices where the screen and body meets. While that portion might be really difficult to clean because if not handled with care can cause damages to the device’s screen protector or glass getting broken, the best way to get this cleaned up is using Scotch tape which can be laid along the creases and speaker which can then be rolled gently in whatever tight area of your device.

Sometimes, there might be smaller speakers that the tape might find it difficult to reach, toothpick might be an alternative here but proceed with serious caution. Also, you can try to vacuum the debris using small crevice tools.

How about if your Smartphone falls in a Soup

If your smartphone accidentally falls into a bowl of hot soup, there might be some problem if its nnot well cleaned out immediately. Considering the fact that modern smartphones are now made closed up tightly, and protected with coatings, then your device might be safe.

But the difficulty is cleaning the strands of soup out of the ports of the device. If you’re like me, you might use a suction for the USB ports and earpiece.. But other tight areas can be wiped clean using soft dampened clothing which can be cleaned in clean water.

For the body of the device, you can use Vinegar to get rid of those smells and keep your device cleaned out. Also, expose it to air so it gets dried out and warm at some normal degree. Also, note that the usage of alcohol is great as it kills germs that can be harboured in your smartphone over time so that touching your device with your bare hands might not be a problem later on.

Can you wash waterproof phones?

Yes after all, why is it certified with an IP67 rating. But do note that despite the fact that some of these smartphones can withstand a 30 minutes long submersion under 3 feet of water, it might still be controversial to deep your device into a bowl of water as though you wanted to wash a plate.

It would be a better idea to simply use a clean soft or wet cloth to clean your smartphone after which you can use a dry cloth to get your device dried and make sure speakers andvholes are well pat dry.

Do note that having a water-resistant smartphone doesn’t automatically mean you should always take your device for a long swim. The reasons for water-resistance in the first place is to give assurance in the case of accidental fall off into water. And in fact getting your device into water mean water will definitely go through into the ports such as USB and earpiece which means charging can’t be done until it’s dry and that takes enough time.