Fixing your wet phone by playing a YouTube video isn't as crazy as it sounds

When it comes to drying out a wet phone, there are various methods you can try. One method that has gained some popularity of late is playing a specific type of YouTube video to push the water out. But does this method actually work? A new report has now answered that question.

On YouTube, you’ll find a variety of videos like “Sound to Remove Water From Phone Speaker (Guaranteed)” that promise to remove water from your phone. In the comments section of these videos, you’ll also see users who got their phone wet by various means (shower, doing dishes, swimming, etc.) and swear that these videos get the job done.

Something else you’ll notice about these comments is that many of them mention the word “community.” The fact that these people consider themselves to be a community just goes to show how popular of a water removal solution this has become. But the question remains: is this solution real?

According to a report from The Verge, these videos do work — kind of. The videos take advantage of a phone’s speakers having the ability to push air. They aim to optimize the amount of air being pushed by the speaker by playing a low sound, while recommending turning the volume up to maximize the amount of force being exerted.

When speaking to Eric Freeman, a senior director of research at Bose, Freeman told the outlet:

The lowest tone that that speaker can reproduce, at the loudest level that it can play. That will create the most air motion, which will push on the water that’s trapped inside the phone.

The logic behind this matches the water-ejecting feature on the Apple Watch. However, an oscillating tone that pushes water out of a phone isn’t as effective as it is on a smartwatch due to the presence of more cavities in the phone.

When testing the videos, with the help of the iFixit team, on a wet iPhone 13, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 3, and Nokia 7.1, it was discovered that the speakers were powerful enough to push out some water through the speaker grille. However, the effect didn’t last longer than a short burst. It also wasn’t able to solve problems from other entry points like the USB port or the SIM card slot.

In short, the tests found that you can mostly thank better water resistance on your phone for surviving an encounter with water. But if you want to play one of these videos, that won’t hurt either.