An iPhone has two speakers, and they behave differently. The earpiece — a narrow mesh above the screen, gets clogged with dust and cosmetics; the main speaker — at the bottom near the port, suffers from moisture. Half of the calls about "can't hear the other person" are solved by cleaning the mesh, without replacing parts.
Check in a minute
- Turn on speakerphone during a call. Hearing well — the issue is in the earpiece speaker, not the network.
- Record a voice memo and listen to it. Crackling in the recording — the microphone is at fault, not the speaker.
- Listen to music at different volumes: if crackling only appears at maximum, the speaker is overloaded but working.
- Look at the mesh under side lighting — a clogged mesh is visible to the eye.
Four common causes
- Clogged mesh. Dust, lint from a pocket, foundation. The most common case and cheapest repair.
- Moisture. After rain or a bath, sound becomes dull — water in the speaker chamber. Often goes away on its own, but leaves corrosion on contacts.
- Worn speaker. Crackling at medium volume, rattling at low frequencies — the membrane is worn out.
- Flex cable or logic board. Sound disappears completely or appears only when pressing on the housing.
What not to do
Don't poke the mesh with a needle or paperclip — this pushes dust inside and tears the mesh. Don't blow with compressed air — same result. Don't dry with a hair dryer — the adhesive softens. If the phone has been in water, something else matters more: what to do right after liquid exposure.
What the service does
First, ultrasonic cleaning and testing on test frequencies — often this is the end of it. If the membrane is worn or there is corrosion, the speaker is replaced; this is one of the cheapest services on the price list and takes less than an hour. At the same time, microphones are checked: in a call they work as a pair, and the complaint "you can't hear me" already concerns them.