How to Test Your Phone's Earpiece Speaker
The earpiece is the small speaker at the top of your phone, the one you hold to your ear on calls. When callers sound quiet, muffled or crackly, or you can't hear them at all, it's tempting to assume it's broken. Often it isn't. A few minutes with the phone itself will tell you whether it's the earpiece, a setting, or just the call.
One thing to know first: we can't test it for you from this page. Browsers play a page's sound through your phone's main speaker, or through whatever headphones are connected, and a web page has no way to choose the earpiece instead. So an "online earpiece test" is really testing your loudspeaker. The checks below use the phone's own features, and one of them uses our speaker test in a way that does reach the earpiece on many phones.
Make a call, then switch to speakerphone
The simplest test is a real call in a quiet room. Ring a friend, or your own voicemail, which always answers and always says the same thing. Hold the phone to your ear and listen, then switch to speakerphone partway through. Comparing the two on the same call is what makes this useful, because it rules out a bad line.
| What you hear | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Quiet or muffled at your ear, clear on speakerphone | The earpiece, or something covering it. Clean the grille and check your case and screen protector first. |
| Bad on both | The call, not your phone. A weak signal, a poor connection or the other person's microphone. Try a different call. |
| Nothing at your ear and nothing on speakerphone | The call is going somewhere else, usually to Bluetooth earbuds, a watch or a car. |
| Crackling or buzzing that gets worse as you turn the call volume up | The earpiece itself is likely damaged, often after a drop or a soaking. |
No call needed: play a voice message at your ear
Many messaging apps switch a voice message to the earpiece when you lift the phone to your ear. WhatsApp does it, and so does Messages on iPhone once Raise to Listen is turned on in its settings. Record a short message to yourself, or play one a friend sent, and raise the phone. The sound should jump from the main speaker to the earpiece. If it goes quiet instead, and the same message is fine on the main speaker, the earpiece is your suspect.
On many phones, the earpiece is also a speaker
Plenty of phones with stereo sound use the earpiece as their second speaker. iPhones from the iPhone 7 on work this way, and so do many Android phones. That means you can test it with sound from a web page after all, just not as an earpiece.
Open our speaker test on the phone, turn it sideways, and play the left side, then the right. One side should come from the bottom of the phone and the other from the earpiece end. Which is which depends on which way you turned it. If one end stays silent while the other plays fine, and the grille isn't blocked, the earpiece has most likely failed. If both sides come out of the bottom, your phone has a single speaker, and this check can't reach the earpiece. Use the call and voice message checks instead.
Use the phone's own test, if it has one
Some phones have a hidden hardware test menu. On many Samsung Galaxy phones, typing *#0*# in the Phone app opens one, and its Receiver button plays a tone through the earpiece (receiver is the technical name for it). Not every model or carrier allows it. Other makers have their own versions, so search for your phone's model with "hardware test". iPhones don't have one you can open yourself.
Clean the grille, gently
The earpiece sits behind a thin slot or mesh that collects pocket lint, dust, makeup and earwax, the same way an earbud's mesh does. Our guide on why one earbud is quieter than the other explains how much that alone can muffle a speaker. Brush the slot with a soft, dry toothbrush. Don't push a pin into it, don't use liquid, and skip the compressed air, which can drive dirt further in.
Check what's on top of the phone too. A screen protector without a cut-out for the earpiece, or one that has shifted slightly, can cover the slot. So can a thick case. Take them off and try a call before you assume anything's broken.
Check the settings that make calls quiet
Call volume is separate from media volume, so turning up a video does nothing for calls. Press the volume buttons during a call to set it.
If Bluetooth is on, calls may be going to earbuds in a drawer or a car outside. Turn Bluetooth off and call again. On iPhone, also look at Settings › Accessibility › Touch › Call Audio Routing. If it's set to Speaker, every call starts on speakerphone, and the earpiece can look dead when it's fine.
And if the problem is that people can't hear you, that's the microphone, not the earpiece. Why isn't my microphone working goes through what to check.
When it really is the earpiece
If the earpiece stays quiet, muffled or silent after cleaning and every setting checks out, the speaker itself or its connection has probably failed. Distortion that only shows up when it's loud is the classic sign of a damaged speaker, just as it is for the room speakers in our dead, blown or miswired speaker guide. A replacement earpiece is a routine repair for a phone shop or the manufacturer, so check your warranty first. Until then, speakerphone or a pair of earbuds will get you through your calls.