MKBHD on twitter had the same query:

(https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/1775906942583456100) >I cannot for the life of me find a definitive answer to whether or not pointing a smartphone at the solar eclipse will fry the sensor

NASA's official account responded:

(https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1775987385475403874) >We asked our @NASAHQPhoto team, and the answer is yes, the phone sensor could be damaged just like any other image sensor if it’s pointed directly at the Sun. This is especially true if you’re using any sort of magnifying lens attachment on the phone. You would need to utilize the proper filters just like on any other camera. The best practice would be to hold a pair of eclipse glasses in front of your phone’s lenses when photographing the Sun at any point other than totality.

But that still doesn't say anything of value. All it's saying is that any phone pointed at the sun could get damaged at any time.

Phones are pointed at the sun all the time!

Aspects of the problem:

- phones do not have a physical shutter that opens and closes to let in light. The 'electronic shutter' means that light can reach the sensor at all times. A phone left face down in the sun has all that light hitting the sensor. - phones take photos of the sun all the time. And, without significant zoom lenses, they aren't concentrating the light. - during an eclipse, there is less light reaching the phone's sensors - conflating the issue with damage to the human eye is stupid because these are very different problems - a phone's lens just isn't that big and physically can't let in that much light - will a longer exposure time during a partial eclipse be what damages a sensor? - will it vary greatly based on lens type on different smartphones? (new phones have larger lenses and higher zoom). What's the threshold?

Please correct any of my misunderstandings. Does anyone have any real information to add to this?