In today’s blog, we’re myth-busting yet another piece of misinformation about phone charging: whether or not it’s bad to use your phone while it’s charging. Learn why using your phone while charging is not dangerous (though still not the best thing for your battery), plus tips to help your phone stay charged during a long day. Grab your power adapters and let’s get mythbusting!
There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about whether or not it’s bad to use a phone while charging. There was even a viral TikTok video circulating around last year, claiming that using your phone while on a charger was dangerous because the phone sends electrical waves through your body. This is absolutely not true and, in fact, it’s totally safe to use your phone while it charges from either a wall outlet or a power bank.
However, using your phone while charging will cause it to charge much more slowly. That’s because you’re drawing power from the battery at the same time that you are trying to charge it. In fact, using your phone while it’s charging is one of the main culprits behind slow charging speeds.
Think of your phone battery like a big water jug that’s almost out of water. You put it in the sink and begin filling it up with water from the faucet (the equivalent to plugging your phone in to charge). Then, you grab a cup and fill it with water from the jug (analogous to using your phone) even as you’re trying to fill the jug with water from the faucet. The jug will eventually fill up with water from the faucet but it will just take more time than if you left it alone.
Using your phone a lot while it’s charging can also cause the lithium ion battery to degrade faster than it would otherwise. That’s because both using your phone and charging your phone causes the battery to heat up. When you do both at the same time, it heats up the battery and puts a lot of stress on it. If you do this frequently, all that heat will compromise the battery performance and potentially make it harder for it to hold a full charge.
