No Stupid Questions

Other people have already given sensible suggestions, but I’ll mention one group of chemicals that can damage your phone: bases.

If your phone has aluminium parts, highly concentrated bases will begin to gradually dissolve them. Hopefully nobody was thinking of using dishwasher tablets to make a soap solution for your phone. That’s a bad idea, since the resulting solution has a very high pH-value (base). What about the powder used for washing clothes? Same thing. Even regular hand soap is basic, but it’s nowhere near that extreme.

Exposure time also matters. If you just wipe the phone with a damp cloth, the time will be very short. If you really want to damage the aluminium parts with hand soap, it’s going to take an absurdly long time to do anything. However, those dishwasher tablets are a different beast.

Temperature matters too. These kinds of reactions happen faster if you heat up the solution.

I use a alcohol swab on my phone everyday after work. I get em in bulk and just wipe my phone down. Quick and disposable so I can take a bunch with me when I travel.

97% iso is probably the best thing to use just don't soak your phone use qtips and microfiber cloth. Hot glue is a semi risky way to clean ports of residual lint and dirt but rinse with iso first then fully dry before applying hot glue. Let glue set then peel.

I clean my phone using window cleaner and a paper towel. Modern phones aren't that sensitive so I really don't think you need to worry much about what you use. Just maybe don't spray liquids directly into speakers/mic or USB ports.

Use a 97%+ isopropyl alcohol wetted cloth or cotton ball, don't immerse the phone.

Who cleans their phone? Who disinfects their phone?

I wipe my screen if it's dirty, and once every month or so I'll take it out of the case to clean the gunk out.

I'm seeing a lot of comments for super high concentrations of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect. As a public service announcement, 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) a Better Disinfectant than 99%

Rubbing alcohol on a towel, clorox if it's something gross. Wipe where needed, don't let anything soak. Small pick-like tools for ports

There’s a putty for clearing out any mesh grills or small holes, stubborn edges, getting gunk out of earbuds, etc. that you can buy so you don’t have to worry about poking something with tweezers or a toothpick.

Some fine point tweezers are usually useful for getting lint out of the USB port, I have done it fairly aggressively and not done any damage yet.

Depends, my phone is IP69K so I washed it with hand soap, warm water and a towel dry lol

The best option is to look at the manufacturer for your phone. They should have instructions for your model. These iPhone instructions are a good general guide, but there might be specific recommendations for whatever model you’re cleaning.

Ngl. I came here expecting how to properly delete/shred data from a smartphone e.g. when selling or otherwise giving it to someone else

I pretty much use this stuff on everything. Spray it on the cloth, though, not the screen.

For the ports, I just use compressed air.