Speakerphone not working? Fixes for iPhone and Android

During a call, the Speaker button has to be highlighted. On iPhone it's the icon on the call screen; on Android it's the speaker icon or an Audio button that opens a list. If your phone connected to a Bluetooth device (car, earbuds, a smart speaker), the call audio may be going there silently, and the Speaker button will show that device instead.

Tap the audio route and choose iPhone or Phone speaker explicitly. If the list shows a Bluetooth device you're not using, that's the cause: turn Bluetooth off for a moment and the audio comes back.

The volume buttons control whichever sound is active. Pressed with no call running, they adjust ringer or media. During a call, press volume up several times; that's the in-call volume, and it's separate. A phone with media volume at 80% and call volume at 5% sounds like a broken speakerphone.

Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Call Audio Routing. If it's set to Bluetooth Headset or Speaker and behaving oddly, set it to Automatic. This setting decides where every call goes before you press anything, and it's easy to change by accident, especially alongside the auto-answer option on the same screen. See auto-answer calls for what else lives there.

Speakerphone uses the bottom speaker (and on newer iPhones, the earpiece as a second channel). Pocket lint, dust, and case adhesive block the grille and cut output dramatically. Use a dry, soft toothbrush and brush across the holes, then a short puff of air. Don't use liquids or compressed air at close range. Take the case off and test; some cases cover part of the grille.

A phone that got wet, even from rain or a steamy bathroom, can have muffled or absent speaker output until the water clears. Newer iPhones and some Android phones can play a tone to eject water; for the rest, leave the phone speaker-down in a dry, warm place for a few hours. Don't put it in rice; it doesn't help and the dust makes things worse.

If the phone reconnects to a car kit or earbuds every time you start a call, the fix is to forget the device: Settings, Bluetooth, tap the device, Forget This Device (iPhone) or Unpair (Android). Re-pair it later if you want it, but it will stop hijacking calls in the meantime.

A restart clears the audio stack, which occasionally gets stuck after a call over Wi-Fi Calling or a Bluetooth handoff. Then check for a software update; speaker and call-audio bugs get fixed in point releases more often than you'd think.

iPhone: Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, Reset All Settings. Android: Settings, System, Reset options, Reset app preferences or Reset network settings. This clears audio routing, Bluetooth, and accessibility settings without touching your photos or apps. Re-enter Wi-Fi passwords afterwards.

If the other person can't hear you on speakerphone but you can hear them, the problem is the microphone, not the speaker. Speakerphone uses a different mic from the handset (usually the one at the bottom edge), so it can fail independently.

Test the speaker: play a voice memo or a video on speaker with no headphones connected. Test the microphone with the microphone test tool, which shows the live input level in your browser. If the speaker plays music fine but calls are silent, the fault is routing (steps 1 to 3). If nothing plays at all, or the mic test shows no signal after the software resets, it's hardware and time for a repair.

A phone that intermittently loses call audio is a phone that intermittently loses customers, because a caller who hears silence hangs up and dials the next listing. While you sort the handset out, forwarding the business line to something that always answers takes a minute and undoes in a minute. An AI receptionist picks up every call, books the appointment, and sends you a summary, whatever state your speaker is in. The call forwarding guide has the codes.