I spoke with the Wall Street Journal recently about the difficulty in cleaning smartphone screens. A post I wrote in September last year about cleaning phones is republished below.
My wife is a bit of a germaphobe, so she frequently asks that I disinfect her iPhone. When I indulge her concerns, I use an isopropyl alcohol-soaked swab.
It turns out this is a very bad thing to do.
Here are Apple’s instructions for cleaning its phones:
Use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth. Avoid getting moisture in openings. Don’t use window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean iPhone. The front and back glass surfaces have an oleophobic coating. To remove fingerprints, simply wipe these surfaces with a soft, lint-free cloth. The ability of this coating to repel oil will diminish over time with normal usage, and rubbing the screen with an abrasive material will further diminish its effect and may scratch the glass.
Note that the page is titled, “How to Clean Apple Products” (emphasis mine). There is a separate page about disinfecting Apple products, but that is only recommended for keyboards, trackpads and mice; i.e., non-glass products.
Apple got attention for the oleophobic iPhone screen back when it launched the iPhone 3GS. This Gizmodo piece does a good job of explaining how the screen works. (In short, the coating makes the screen less greasy.) Today, many smartphones, not just iPhones, have oleophobic coatings, and Apple is continuing to make improvements in the coating it uses.
So, the proper way to clean your smartphone: A very slightly damp (from water!) lint-free cloth.
There really is no proper way to disinfect your smartphone screen. But let’s say a child with virulent strep throat has just sneezed all over your phone. Then what? What is the best way to disinfect the screen when necessary?
Apple recommends using Lysol or Clorox disinfecting wipes on keyboards and other non-glass products. These wipes are bleach and alcohol free, and use ammonium chloride as the disinfecting agent. I spoke with a chemist reader of mine who strongly advised against using isopropyl alcohol (my previous cleaner of choice).
“I don’t think I’d want to get isopropyl alcohol on my phone,” he said. “It’s a pretty darn good solvent.”
Fortunately, I didn’t use alcohol on my wife’s screen too many times. She keeps her phone in a plastic case, which can very easily be safely disinfected. I’ll stay away from the screen from now on.
