Over-charging leads to battery damage? Flashlight message

[Wendy Cutler]

I am using the Super-Bright LED Flashlight by Surpax Inc, have no idea if it's what came with my phone or if I chose it. Only recently, an extra screen has come up during charging showing me how much time was remaining, indicating that it would shut off the charging when it was complete. Very recently, there have been more obnoxious ads, like one saying I had three viruses and I should install whatever (though I have Kaspersky running).

This screen is related to Smart Charging, and the explanation text says "Automatically monitor charging status and stop over-charging to prevent battery damage. It may contain ads."

So the question is, is there such a thing as over-charging and does it cause battery damage? Or is this just a ruse to get me to read ads? I see a few over-charging questions here and there, none of them really answered. I have turned this feature off for now.

Can a flashlight app really manage over-charging?

 

[Hadron]

That flashlight app surely does not come with the phone.

Overcharging can damage batteries, but the phone will manage charging, and interfering with that would be a bad idea.

In short, this is a scareware ad for a junk app, and personally I'd ditch the app that is serving such ads. There are plenty of flashlight apps that don't do this (I'm using TeslaLED, from the developer of Nova Launcher, for example).

 

[A bochur]

I am using the Super-Bright LED Flashlight by Surpax Inc, have no idea if it's what came with my phone or if I chose it. Only recently, an extra screen has come up during charging showing me how much time was remaining, indicating that it would shut off the charging when it was complete. Very recently, there have been more obnoxious ads, like one saying I had three viruses and I should install whatever (though I have Kaspersky running).
This screen is related to Smart Charging, and the explanation text says 'Automatically monitor charging status and stop over-charging to prevent battery damage. It may contain ads.'
So the question is, is there such a thing as over-charging and does it cause battery damage? Or is this just a ruse to get me to read ads? I see a few over-charging questions here and there, none of them really answered. I have turned this feature off for now.
Can a flashlight app really manage over-charging?

You should delete that flashlight app as hadron mentioned.
I just want to add, that on my Galaxy s5 there is a widget for flashlight. To find it, long long press on an empty spot on your home screen, press widgets, find the flashlight widget and drag it to your home screen

 

[philayl]

Hi, have to agree with everyone, dump that app as fast as you can, anything that uses scare tactics to sell itself can't be good. Phil

 

[Wendy Cutler]

You should delete that flashlight app as hadron mentioned.
I just want to add, that on my Galaxy s5 there is a widget for flashlight. To find it, long long press on an empty spot on your home screen, press widgets, find the flashlight widget and drag it to your home screen

Thank you, all. @A bochur, I was not at all aware of Widgets (well, maybe three years ago when I got the phone I was told about them). I did locate a choice of a 1x1 or a 4x4 flashlight widget, chose the 1 x 1 and brought it onto a screen. It has an ad at the bottom of the screen. Are there paid versions of widgets that do not show ads? Are Widgets different from PlayStore apps (other than coming with the device and not offering updates)? Is it possible to tell the program name?

Hmm. After getting the widget, and writing the previous paragraph, I uninstalled the Surpax Superbright app, and my Flashlight widget that I had just positioned disappeared. I looked for it to put it back, and it was not there among the widgets. What I found was a light-bulb looking thing called Torch, which I selected. It's essentially an on-off button, turns the light on directly without going to another screen (no place to put an ad), has no controls. That should be fine. That "Superbright" thing - is that hype too? Are there degrees of brightness among the flashlight apps?

@Hadron, does TeslaLED have ads (or a paid version?). When you say doesn't do this, did you just mean that it has discrete ads?

 

[Hadron]

I meant that it has no ads. There is a "donate" version, which I use, but I'm sure even the free one is ad-free - I used that for a while before buying the donate version.

That said, the Play Store search wasn't showing it any more! However I found a Play Store link from the developer's own page, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.flashlight&feature=teslacoilsw.com, which still works, or there is a direct download link from the developer's page I linked. It's not been updated for a long time, but is still working on my phone so probably worth a shot.

Your widget disappearing was probably because the "superbright flashlight" app was producing the widget (a "widget" is just an app that puts a live tile on your desktop. Some apps only do that, others provide a desktop widget as well as an app, e.g. installing the BBC News app also gives me a couple of widgets I can use if I want).