WHY CAN't I TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SOLAR ECLIPSE?

So many people have told me that it would break/damage my phone lens if I do. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever because if you were to go out any other day and take a picture of sun, nothing would happen right? So why during the eclipse?

I also didn't get any glasses so I don't want risk viewing it but I was thinking to just record it from my phone and look through it.

( I have an iphone 7) and the camera lens seems pretty strong to me but I honestly don't know?

Apple says it is safe to. "Most smartphone photos show a wide-angle view, of which the sun will be a very small part, Apple tells USA Today. Pointing an iPhone at the sun - even during the eclipse - won't damage its camera sensor or lens, the company says"

You need eye protection if you look through lens.

Well, I'm not 100% sure, but I think you are right.

Maybe if you target for too long the sun with your camera, it will heat too much. After all, the lens is designed to focus precisely on the ccd. So it is like burning something with a magnifier: if it is only 1 sec, ok, but if you maintain the same thing in the sun spot made by the lens for too long…

So maybe there's some truth to it. Maybe it will heat to much if you target the sun for a long time (minutes).
(But it is a very small magnifier. Not a big one, like Sherlock Holmes one^^. So not much energy is focused by it. And, even if there are some invisible toxic rays still there, most of the energy is in the visible rays that will be hidden)

Anyway, the thing is that probably you won't see much, whether it damage the camera or not. The sun will dazzle the camera.
So you may need to add some filter on it anyway (like a black tape, or an old CD. No need to find some special filter suitable for eyes: camera don't have retinopathy because of UV. As long as the image is not to bright…)

And with a filter, I don't see how it could damage the camera.

If you are used to take picture of the sun (other than at sunset, when the atmosphere is already filtering it) with the same camera, then you are right: there's nothing more in the eclipse. The problem of the eclipse is not that it emits more rays. In fact you get even less rays during eclipse. Is that, because it emits almost no visible rays at all, people are tricked to believed that there's no dangerous rays at all, when the invisible toxic rays are still there.

So you won't burn your camera more when filming an eclipse than when you film regular sun.
And you even will burn far less.

So, my guess is that you are perfectly right, and that there's no danger at all for you camera.

I only made the hypothesis at the beginning of this answer because I'm not 100% sure and I don't want you to demand money from me if you burn the camera^^

Edit: ok, Ranchmom1 gave an authoritative answer that confirm my first guess. No danger for the camera.

The only danger is for your eye, if you look at the Sun while targeting.
My advice: use selfie mode. So you can have the Sun behind you when targeting.

And you may not see a sharp image, because, even without being damaged, the camera will be dazzled by the sun (mine is, when I try to take picture of the Sun). So you may want to add a filter on it (again, just a DIY one will do. It is not like it is for your eye)

You wouldn't take a picture of the sun directly. A solar eclipse is still the sun.