Let me get this out of the way up front: This is not an advertisement for Whoosh! I (Mikah Sargent, Senior Editor at iMore) genuinely love this stuff and have used it religiously on my tech for a couple years now.
I'm going to tell you why I think Whoosh! is so wonderful and you can decide at the end if it's right for you. If it's not right for you, cool. If it is, welcome to the Whoosh! club! OK, let's get to it.
No, really, your phone is dirtier than a toilet seat
You may have heard that bit of trivia about how your phone is dirtier than a public toilet seat and thought, "That can't possibly be true!" Well, I'm here to tell you it is. According to a study conducted way back in 2007 (hmm, I bet we use our phones even more in 2017 than we did in 2007), our phones have more bacteria on them than the average toilet seat.
Mobile phone retailer Dial-a-Phone conducted the study taking swabs from everyday objects and analyzing the bacteria found on them. The shocking results found that there's more muck on our mobiles than the average door handle, keyboard, and bottom of a shoe or even a toilet seat.
If you're anything like me, you take your phone with you everywhere you go … and I do mean everywhere. As you go about your day, you expose your device to all kinds of bacteria. You may wash your hands regularly, but unless you're washing your devices regularly, you're just getting your hands dirty every time you tap your screen.
We do a pretty good job ignoring the literal germ factory atop our multitouch screens, but there's another, less hidden screen ailment: fingerprints.
Ever find yourself in just the right light that your fingerprint smudges are literally obstructing the view of your screen? It's not only annoying and inconvenient; it's disgusting because it reminds us just how dirty our phones are. Despite the oleophobic (resistant to oils) coating on our devices, fingerprints and smudges still seem to find their way onto our screens.
Good thing is, you can keep fingerprints, smudges, and germs off your device with just a little care.
Why I use Whoosh! Screen Shine
Apple has some recommendations for keeping your Apple devices clean, but they aren't very detailed and I find they suggest a little too light a touch. If you want to remove fingerprints, smudges, and germs, you're gonna need a little elbow grease.
The Whoosh! Screen Shine kit I buy comes in a little resealable pouch. It contains a 1oz spray bottle full of the Screen Shine solution and Whoosh!'s antimicrobial microfiber cloth. Yep, that's right, the cloth is antimicrobial. That means you needn't worry about the germs you're cleaning off your phone getting stuck to the cloth and reapplied during your next cleaning. Pretty smart!
Now, you might have thought at some, "I don't need a special cleaner! I just use hand sanitizer to clean off my phone screen." I've seen a lot of people clean their device screens with hand sanitizer. DO NOT DO THAT. Hand sanitizer contains alcohol and alcohol will damage the coating on your device's screen. You need a cleaner free of abrasive cleaners and alcohol.
Whoosh!'s Screen Shine formula isn't just alcohol- and abrasive-free — it's also non-toxic, eco-friendly, and helps your screen resist fingerprints. Yeah, about that last part? The Screen Shine formula has a special oleophobic, anti-static coating ingredient that coats your screen as you clean. That means every time you clean your screen you're strengthening its anti-fingerprint coating.
Note: If you're wondering whether you can see or feel the coating that gets added, in my multiple years using the stuff, I've never noticed any unpleasant build-up on my screen.
Using Whoosh!
If you decide to buy some Whoosh! Screen Shine for your gadgets, you should know it works a little differently than you might think (or at least it wasn't what I expected). Instead of spraying Whoosh! Screen Shine onto your device's screen and wiping it away with the cloth, you're actually going to spray the stuff onto the cloth and then wipe your screen with it. After the screen has gotten a nice coating of the solution, you'll take a dry section of the cloth and polish it up.
Let me tell ya, folks, your screens will shine if you do it right. The only problem is you'll probably get used to having a fingerprint-free device and obsess over cleaning it regularly … or maybe that's just me. 😂
Thoughts?
Have you used Whoosh! Screen Shine? Do you prefer another screen cleaner? Are you just resigned to fingerprints and germs on your devices? Let me know in the comments or send a tweet my way over on Twitter!
