Turns out, we've been living an iPhone-cleaning lie.
After years of being told we cannot--and should not--clean our phones with disinfecting wipes, Apple now says you can. My extensive testing over the last few days proves the same.
On Monday, Apple updated its "How to clean your Apple products" website with new wording. Instead of a blanket ban on "cleaning products," the company says it's OK to use a 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox disinfecting wipes on the surface of your Apple products.
These types of products are recommended by health and infectious-disease experts for stopping the spread of coronavirus on surfaces.
Apple's website previously said, "Cleaning products and abrasive materials will further diminish the coating and might scratch your iPhone." (Another smartphone maker, Google, says you can use "ordinary household soap or cleaning wipes" when cleaning Pixel phones.)
Over the past week, I've been working on a column and video on the best ways to clean your smartphones, given the spread of the novel coronavirus and new evidence that it could live on metal, glass or plastic from two hours up to nine days.
The concern is that many cleaning products could damage the protective "oleophobic" coating that helps repel fingerprints and other smudges. Before Apple softened its cleaning-product ban, it was my intention to test it.
Using a brand-new iPhone 8, I wiped the screen 1,095 times with Clorox disinfecting wipes. Why so many? I figured that's the equivalent of wiping down your phone every day for the three years you might own it. Even after all that wiping, the coating was still in good condition. My fingers, on the other hand, not so much.
Apple's website continues to say "do not use aerosol sprays, bleaches or abrasives." I can understand why after dousing my test iPhone with toilet bowl cleaner.
I plan to share more of this in my column and video coming later this week, but didn't want to wait until then to tell anxious germaphobes out there the good news: You can safely use those disinfecting wipes on your phone. Just make sure to avoid getting liquid in the ports.
As for where you can actually buy those wipes? That's a totally different story.
