Coronavirus pandemic: How to keep your smartphone virus-free

COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, can survive on some surfaces for days, including your smartphone. Considering a smartphone is a device you continuously use and often press to the side of your face when taking calls, makes it potentially dangerous as bacteria or germs on your phone or case can easily come in contact with your skin.

While South Korean tech giant Samsung recently announced a free smartphone sanitizing service, Apple has listed methods to safely clean iPhones using disinfectant wipes. While some cleaning methods will ensure good initial results, they could do damage in the long run to the screen or internal hardware. However, there are ways to disinfect your phone without damaging the components.

If you have an Apple iPhone, it can be cleaned or disinfected with Clorox Wipes. AT&T recently revised its cleaning guidelines, suggesting to “spray a nonabrasive or alcohol-based (70% isopropyl) disinfectant directly on a soft lint-free cloth and wipe down your device while it is powered down and unplugged”.

A more expensive but effective option is UV light sanitizer. However, their availability in India is subjective. Samsung is also offering UV light cleaning services for Samsung devices and other smartphones in 19 countries with more to be added to the list soon. UV light sanitizers like PhoneSoap is said to kill up to 99.99 percent of germs and bacteria.