Using your phone while charging: Really dangerous or just a misunderstanding?

Keeping your phone’s battery healthy is key to prolonging the life of your device, but how much “care” is really necessary? Over the years, there have been countless tips and myths about battery optimization, the most common of which is that you shouldn’t use your phone while it’s charging. In reality, this is only partially true, and in most situations, the concern is unfounded.

Charging is more complex than most people realize. Modern smartphones are designed to communicate with their chargers, automatically adjusting the amount of power they receive to ensure optimal charging speed without causing damage. This sophistication makes using your phone while charging much safer than is commonly believed.

At its core, this notion is based on two assumptions: that using your phone while charging can cause the battery to overheat or reduce its lifespan in the long run. But in reality, most smartphones today are built to withstand this kind of use. It’s important to understand the nature of the problem so you can feel more secure when plugging in and using your device.

You can absolutely use your phone while it is charging.

In most cases, it’s perfectly safe to use your phone while charging. The main reason people are concerned is because of the fear of overheating the battery: charging generates heat, and operating the device also generates heat. It’s true that high temperatures can damage batteries, but today’s smartphones are designed to handle this. In fact, when you use your phone while charging, the system will automatically slow down the charging speed, partly because you’re consuming power, and partly because the device prioritizes protecting the battery.

In the case of wireless charging, you may feel the device getting hotter. This is because this technology is less efficient than wired charging because the energy has to pass through the back and even the protective case, leading to loss and heat generation. However, this is not a significant danger. Only when the device gets so hot that it is uncomfortable to hold, you should temporarily stop charging to let the device cool down.

In fact, for using your phone while charging to be a “risk,” you need to have several adverse factors at once, such as an old phone with a degraded battery, charging wirelessly in the hot summer sun, and running a graphics-heavy game. In other words, it’s a rare scenario that most users will never encounter.

Does using your phone while charging reduce battery life?

A more common concern is that charging while using the battery can shorten its lifespan. Lithium-ion batteries are designed to only handle a certain number of charge cycles in their lifetime. When subjected to excessive stress, this number of cycles can be reduced, leading to rapid battery deterioration, difficulty in fully charging, or abnormal battery drain.

However, in reality, this impact is very small and rarely causes significant harm. Today's smartphones all integrate advanced battery management technology, helping to control current and temperature, ensuring that battery cells operate within safe limits.

Only under extreme conditions, such as charging while playing a heavy game in a hot environment, will the battery be put under greater stress than usual. Even then, the problem only becomes a concern if the device gets so hot that it becomes difficult to hold, displays a system warning, or suddenly shuts down.

In other words, battery life is less affected by the habit of charging while using, but depends more on the quality of the charger, charging cable and how you preserve the device during daily use./.