There is a particular kind of frustration that comes from speakerphone problems. Music plays fine, videos sound fine, but the moment you switch a call to speakerphone, you cannot hear the other person — or they cannot hear you. The phone is not broken in the obvious way, which makes the fault harder to pin down.

The key is that a phone call on speakerphone uses different parts of the phone from normal playback. Music uses the loudspeaker. A normal call uses the earpiece and the bottom microphone. Speakerphone uses the loudspeaker plus the microphone, with echo cancellation doing a lot of quiet work in between. A fault in any one of those, or in the software that switches between them, can break speakerphone while everything else sounds perfect. Work through these checks in order, and most speakerphone problems resolve without a repair.

1. First, work out which direction is broken

Before changing anything, make a test call and establish the facts:

• Can you hear them, but they cannot hear you? The problem is your microphone, or the phone’s echo cancellation muting it.
• Can they hear you, but you cannot hear them? The problem is the loudspeaker during calls, or the call volume.
• Can neither of you hear anything? The call audio may be routing somewhere else entirely — Bluetooth, a car stereo, or a connected accessory.
• Does it happen on every call, or only in one app? If WhatsApp calls fail but normal calls work, the problem is the app’s permissions or settings, not the hardware.

That distinction saves a lot of wasted effort. A microphone fault and a loudspeaker fault are different repairs, and a routing fault is not a repair at all.

2. Check the in-call volume (it is separate from media volume)

Phones keep call volume and media volume separate. Your music can be at full volume while your call volume sits at the minimum, because you last turned it down during a call weeks ago. During an active call, press the volume-up button and watch which slider moves — it should be the call volume. Turn it up while the other person is speaking and see if they come through.

Also check that the phone is not on mute. It sounds obvious, but the mute button is easy to brush with a cheek or a thumb when you switch to speakerphone, and a muted call looks exactly like a broken microphone to the person on the other end. The same applies to the other person’s phone — ask them to check their mute too before you dismantle anything.

3. Disconnect Bluetooth and anything plugged in

This is the single most common cause of “speakerphone not working”. If the phone is connected to Bluetooth earbuds, a car stereo, a smartwatch with calling, or a Bluetooth speaker, call audio will often route there instead of to the phone’s loudspeaker — even if the accessory is in another room or in a bag. The phone thinks it is doing you a favour.

Turn Bluetooth off completely for the test call, and unplug any wired headphones or USB-C audio adapter. If speakerphone suddenly works, you have found the culprit. Reconnect accessories one at a time to find which one is grabbing the audio. The same routing check is covered in our guide to fixing the earpiece and call speaker, because the two problems share the same cause more often than people expect.

4. Check the loudspeaker itself

If you can hear the other person on the earpiece (phone held to your ear) but not on speakerphone, the loudspeaker may be blocked or faulty during calls specifically. Play music first: if music sounds clear and loud through the same speaker, the hardware is probably fine and the problem is call routing or settings. If music is also muffled, quiet or distorted, the speaker needs attention — dust and debris in the grille are the usual cause, and our guide to cleaning a phone speaker walks through the safe way to clear it. If the speaker got wet, run a water-eject tone and let it dry, as described in our guide to ejecting water from a phone speaker.

Also check the case. A case that covers or partly covers the bottom speaker grille, or a screen protector that has slipped over the earpiece, can muffle call audio while leaving music sounding almost normal. Take the case off for one test call — it costs nothing and rules out a surprisingly common cause.

5. Test and clean the microphone

If the other person cannot hear you on speakerphone but can hear you fine on a normal call, the phone may be using a different microphone for speakerphone mode. Many phones use the bottom microphone for normal calls and a second microphone, near the top or on the back, for speakerphone and noise cancellation. A blocked or faulty second microphone produces exactly this symptom.

Test it: open the voice recorder app, hold the phone at speakerphone distance, and record yourself speaking. Then play it back. If the recording is faint, muffled or silent, the microphone is the problem. Check the microphone holes for lint and dust — a soft brush, not a pin, is the safe way to clear them. On iPhone, the microphone holes sit alongside the speaker grille and the camera; on Android they vary by model, so check your model’s diagram before poking around. Never push anything sharp into a microphone hole.

6. Restart the phone, then check for updates

Call-audio routing is handled by software, and software gets stuck. A plain restart clears the audio service and drops any stuck Bluetooth or accessory routing. It fixes more call problems than any other single step, and it takes a minute.

If a restart does not help, check whether the problem started after a software update. A bad update can break call audio, echo cancellation, or app permissions, and the fix is often the next update rather than anything you do to the phone. Our guide to a phone speaker that stopped working after an update covers the update-specific checks, including rolling back app updates and checking for a patch. While you are there, check the calling app itself: update WhatsApp, FaceTime, or whichever app is failing, and check that it has microphone permission in the phone’s settings. An app that lost its microphone permission after an update will show exactly this symptom.

7. Reset the call and audio settings

If the problem persists, reset the settings that govern call audio — without wiping the phone. On iPhone, Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, then Reset All Settings. This restores network, sound and display settings to defaults without deleting your data. On Android, the equivalent is Settings, System, Reset options, Reset Wi-Fi, mobile and Bluetooth, plus checking the accessibility audio settings for mono audio and balance. After a reset, make a test call before you reconnect any Bluetooth accessories, so you know the phone itself is working.

Also look at Do Not Disturb and Focus modes. They should not affect an active call, but some Focus configurations and third-party call-blocking apps can interfere with call audio routing. Temporarily disable call-blocking and spam-filtering apps for one test call if nothing else has worked.

8. Try safe mode, then accept it might be hardware

On Android, restart in safe mode (hold the power button, then long-press Power off until the safe-mode prompt appears). Safe mode disables third-party apps. If speakerphone works in safe mode, a third-party app — a call recorder, a voice changer, an equaliser, or a battery optimiser that kills the audio service — is interfering. Remove recently installed apps one at a time until the problem clears. On iPhone there is no safe mode, but the equivalent test is to delete recently installed call-related apps and test again.

If speakerphone fails in safe mode, on every app, with no accessories connected, and after a settings reset, the fault is most likely hardware: a failed loudspeaker, a failed microphone, or a damaged audio circuit, often after water damage or a drop. That is a repair-shop job. Back up the phone first, and tell the repairer exactly what you have tested — “works on earpiece, fails on speakerphone, fails in safe mode” is the kind of detail that gets a fault found quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my speakerphone not work but normal calls do?
Speakerphone uses the loudspeaker and a different microphone from a normal call, with different software routing. A blocked loudspeaker, a faulty second microphone, or Bluetooth routing can break speakerphone while normal calls work fine.

The other person cannot hear me on speakerphone. What is wrong?
Usually the speakerphone microphone is blocked or muted, or the call is routing to a Bluetooth accessory. Check mute, turn Bluetooth off, and test the microphone with the voice recorder app.

I can hear them on speakerphone but they sound distant and echoey. Why?
That is usually echo cancellation struggling — the microphone is picking up the loudspeaker. Lower the call volume slightly, move the phone away from walls and hard surfaces, and make sure the case is not reflecting sound back into the microphone.

Speakerphone works on normal calls but not WhatsApp. Why?
That points to the app, not the phone. Check WhatsApp’s microphone permission, update the app, and restart the phone. If it persists, reinstall the app.

My speakerphone stopped working after an update. How do I fix it?
Restart the phone, check for a follow-up update, and reset the audio and network settings. Update-related call-audio faults are usually fixed by the next patch rather than by hardware work.

Is a speakerphone fault expensive to repair?
It depends on the cause. A blocked grille or a settings fault costs nothing. A replacement loudspeaker or microphone is usually a modest repair. A damaged audio circuit on the main board is the expensive one, and it is worth a quote before authorising work.

Try it now

Make one test call with Bluetooth off, the case removed, and the in-call volume turned up. If speakerphone works, you have just saved yourself a repair bill. If it does not, work through the steps above in order — and if the fault survives safe mode and a settings reset, let a repair shop take it from there. For a wet or muffled loudspeaker, start with the free speaker cleaner to clear the grille before you conclude the hardware has failed.