You're Probably Charging Your Phone Wrong - Here's How

Keeping your smartphone battery charged has become a bit of a ritualist habit for folks. In fact, it's very likely that many of us go home at night and simply plug it in overnight, not thinking about how long the phone needs to charge or how hot it might get. However, if you've been charging your phone like this, you could actually be hurting it more than helping it. 

For starters, there are cases of phones catching fire while charging, leading to very risky situations. This is one reason why the bedroom is not the best place to charge your phone. But even leaving your phone on the charger too long can cause lasting damage without any visual evidence. That's because extended charging means more heat is building up in the device, which can hurt important components within. So how do you ensure you're charging your phone the correct way?

Perhaps the most important reason you shouldn't leave your phone on the charger all the time is because it can cause unneeded heat stress. This can lead to weaker battery life, as its capacity lessens over time. There are a number of reasons your phone might start to overheat when charging — such as not being in a cool space or from a cheap cable pushing too much power too quickly. 

That said, the average heat a device produces varies by brand, especially when comparing high-end units with more intensive chipsets like the Galaxy S25 Ultra to lower-end devices that have less power. To help alleviate concerns around overheating while charging, some people recommend removing your phone case before plugging it in, especially if you have a thick case. 

Others say to only charge your device until it reaches 100% and then unplug it. The reason for this is that even after the your smartphone finishes charging, it still continues to pull electricity, which can lead to more heat within the device. Along with not leaving your phone on the charger constantly, you should try to avoid using it while charging. Though light use is usually okay, playing intensive games or running power-hungry apps can increase heat generation when charging.

Make sure you are taking full advantage of features on your phone that are designed to extend its battery life. This includes options like Adaptive Charging on Android (or Optimized Battery Charging on iPhone), as well as the iPhone's Charge Limit option. This feature will cap how much of a charge your device can hold by stopping the process once it hits 80%, or your preset limit. 

Optimized Battery Charging, on the other hand, looks at phone use and when you typically take it off the charger to determine how quickly it needs to charge. This helps alleviate heating of your phone's components, which is a concern with extended charge periods. There is some argument about just how practical capping your iPhone's charging capacity really is, but the feature has some staunch supporters who swear by limiting capacity as a way to slow down battery degradation. 

No matter which side of the argument you fall on, it does appear to offer at least some benefit. The biggest upside here is that features like Android Adaptive Charging don't charge your phone at full power the entire time, instead slowing at a certain point so that it hits 100% shortly before you would typically unplug it. This serves to cut down on heat generation and can help ensure you keep your smartphone running smoothly for months to come.