Smartphones can be charged overnight without supervision, and their batteries should not catch fire because of this, says Eric Griffith, a columnist at PCMag.

According to him, the claim that smartphone batteries are overloaded due to charging overnight is just a myth. It's true that leaving your smartphone charging overnight will reduce its battery life, but it won't cause a fire hazard.

“One thing all the experts agree on is that phones are smart enough not let an overload happen. Extra protective chips inside make sure that can't happen in a tablet, a phone, or even a laptop," wrote the aforesaid specialist.

According to him, a smartphone can be left near the bed overnight, but it is not recommended to put anything on the device. In addition, the phone cannot be placed under the pillow.

"Do any of the above, and you can expect the phone to get hot—not necessarily hot enough for spontaneous combustion but enough to damage the battery," Griffith added.

According to him, the need to keep the smartphone in the refrigerator to avoid battery problems is also a stupid myth.
“Lithium-ion batteries hate two things: extreme cold and extreme heat. Repeatedly charging a phone in sub-freezing temps can create a permanent plating of metallic lithium on the battery anode, according to BatteryUniversity(Opens in a new window). You can't fix that problem; it's simply going to kill the battery faster," he wrote.

As per Griffith, if the battery of the smartphone has become hot, you should put the device in the shade, where it is not under direct sunlight, and do not use the device for a while.

However, the cases of explosions of smartphones have been recorded quite often in recent times.
For example, a Reddit user with the nickname itsmeshailesh posted a video of a OnePlus 8 Pro smartphone in smokes. According to him, this smartphone had exploded while in standby mode; that is, it was neither being used nor being charged at that time.

In January, a charging iPhone 4 caught fire in a house in the US State of Ohio while the whole family was sleeping. The video camera installed in the kitchen recorded how this fire was extinguished immediately after it started. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

And in India, an 8-year-old girl died as a result of the explosion of a Redmi Note 5 Pro smartphone.